SHANGHAI, China - In a surprising turn of events at the 2016 Archery World Cup season opener in Shanghai this morning, almost all U.S. archers were upset early in eliminations after a stellar day of qualification yesterday. Brady Ellison and Crystal Gauvin had shot competition personal bests, qualifying them first and second respectively in their own divisions. Alex Wifler, Steve Anderson and Reo Wilde set a new world record as a team and qualified third, fourth and fifth, each just one point apart.
On the recurve side, Mackenzie Brown, Ariel Gibilaro and Sean McLaughlin were all eliminated in the first round. Khatuna Lorig, who had a bye in the first match, was knocked out 6-4 in the second round along with Jacob Wukie. LaNola Pritchard easily passed her first two matches, winning 6-2 and 6-0 before falling 6-2 to Germany's 3rd seed Lisa Unruh.
Top qualifier Brady Ellison earned a bye into the 1/16th elimination, where he too was upset in his first match 7-3 by 33rd seed Arsalan Baldanov of Russia. Baldanov then was eliminated from competition by China's Xuesong Gu who in turn, fell 6-0 to USA's Zach Garrett in the quarterfinals.
The last U.S. archer left in competition at the semifinals, Garrett dropped only one arrow out of the gold, while his higher ranked opponent from Chinese Taipei forced a one-arrow shoot off. Both shot 10s, but Garrett's was closer to the center and took the win. He will compete in the finals this weekend for gold against the Netherlands' Sjef Van Den Berg.
For the compound women, all U.S. archers had a bye into the second round, except Gauvin who was pre-seeded into the 1/16th for her second place qualification score. Dahlia Crook and Lexi Keller were both stopped in the second round, while Danielle Reynolds made it to the 1/16th. Shooting against Slovenia's Toja Cerne, Reynolds was down four points after two ends. She narrowed the gap, but was unable to catch Cerne and took the hit 146-144.
Gauvin was upset in the quarterfinals by Mexico's Linda Ochoa-Anderson 147-146. Gauvin dropped a single arrow in the eight in the first end, and it turned costly as she was unable to recover from the initial point deficit.
Braden Gellenthien was the only U.S. compound man not pre-seeded into the 1/16th, and a one-arrow shoot off in the second round with Croatia's 54th seeded archer stopped him from continuing after Gellenthien's 9 failed to beat Buden's 10.
With just a few too many 9s, Wilde was stopped in his first match 149-145 by Malaysia's Mohn Juwaidi Mazuki. Wifler's 148-148 tie in the 1/16th went to a one-arrow shoot off, which Turkey's Elmaagacli took with an X over Wifler's 10 before going on to shoot for gold this weekend. Anderson was the last remaining U.S. archer in the 1/8th, where he also was upset 148-143 by Denmark's Patrick Laursen.
Competition resumes tomorrow with team elimination matches through the semifinals. This weekend, the recurve finals, already guaranteed to feature Zach Garrett going for gold, and Lorig and Ellison shooting for mixed team gold, will be available on live stream here. Click here for complete results from the competition so far. For more, follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
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