ANKARA, Turkey - U.S. archers faced tough competition in Ankara this morning at the World Archery Indoor Championships. Compound junior women Cassidy Cox (Albuquerque, New Mexico) and Athena Caiopoulos (Irvine, California) had strong performances earning spots in the gold and bronze finals respectively. 2014 Champion Brady Ellison (Globe, Arizona) will also shoot for bronze in the finals this weekend.
For the first three matches this morning, Brady Ellison dropped only one arrow out of the 10-ring, but his semifinal match against Ukraine's Sergii Makarevych proved a challenge. Ellison opened with two perfect 30s for a 3-1 lead, but after dropping a 28 and two 29s, Ellison was outmatched 6-4. This weekend he will face Italy's Massimiliano Mandia for bronze.
The compound junior women continued their strong streak as Cassidy Cox seeded 2nd, breezed through her matches until meeting teammate Athena Caiopoulos, the 6th seed, in the semifinals. Caiopoulos upset No. 3 Russia's Alexandra Savenkova in the quarterfinals to advance. The semifinal match between the U.S. archers went back and forth, an incredibly tight race, but Cox ultimately took the win 145-144 and will shot for gold and Caiopoulos will shoot for bronze.
Crystal Gauvin (Dayville, Connecticut), seeded 12th in qualification, climbed the compound senior women's bracket, first upsetting No. 5 ranked Natalia Adeeva of Russia in the second round with a 144-143 win. Then in the quarterfinals Gauvin took on Sarah Prieels of Germany.
After an initial defecit, Gauvin came back in the third end to take a 1-point lead at 87-86. After four ends the two were tied at 116, and then finally Adeeva took the win by a single point leaving Gauvin to finish 6th. Gauvin shared on social media: "Today just wasn't my day. Way too many of these arrows [just out of the ten]. In the end I finished 6th. It's a huge disappointment for me, but I need to remind myself that I improved on my last indoor world champs result and hopefully this won't be my last one."
The compound senior men did not make it past the second round. Rod Menzer (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) was upset in the first match by Italy's Michele Nencioni 148-145. Reo Wilde (Pocatello, Idaho) was also upset in the 1/8th elimination by 25th seed Omid Taheri of Iran 148-146.
Competition resumes tomorrow with team eliminations through the semifinals. Complete competition schedule and results can be found here. For more, follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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