Photo by World Archery
AUBURNDALE, Fla. – World Cup medals were won on home soil on Saturday, with the USA claiming team gold and individual silver - to go with the team bronze secured earlier in the week - as compound competition concluded in central Florida.
Not for the first time, the compound men’s trio of James Lutz, Kris Schaff and Sawyer Sullivan struck gold, before Olivia Dean secured silver and her first individual medal at a World Cup event.
The talent of Lutz, Schaff and Sullivan now has three World Cup team medals as a group, having joined forces to claim silver in Paris, France in 2023 and gold during Stage 2 in Yecheon, Korea last year.
Dean has previously won team medals at the World Cup, notably women’s team gold in 2023 and 2024, plus mixed team gold and bronze last year. She was also part of the compound women's team, alongside Alexis Ruiz and debutant Abigail Winterton, who took bronze on Wednesday with a 224-221 win over Chinese Taipei.
The compound men’s team faced Italy in the gold medal match on Saturday morning and led from start to finish. They enjoyed a two-point advantage after the first end, which had grown to nine points by the close of the fourth end as the USA triumphed 227-218.
Dean secured silver but her route to the gold medal match involved three single arrow shoot-offs during elimination, first to defeat teammate Carson Krahe in the 1/16 round, then to overcome Elisa Roner (ITA) in the 1/8 round, before getting back past Andrea Munoz (ESP) in the semifinals.
As chance would have it, the gold medal match also went to a shootoff, with top seed Andrea Becerra (MEX) finding the X to better Dean’s 10.
“This is the first time I’ve ever made it past the second match at a World Cup, so it was a lot of exciting things this weekend and I’m really happy,” Dean said.
“I’ve had four shootoffs this weekend and of course they’re a lot of luck, but I made a good shot (in the gold medal match) and there was nothing else I could do so I’m still very happy with how I did.
“I’m really excited for the rest of the year. I was struggling with confidence coming in, but this has definitely helped that, so now I’m really looking forward to the World Cups and whatever other tournaments are to come.”
The USA is guaranteed at least one more medal when World Cup Stage 1 finishes with recurve competition on Sunday. The recurve women’s team of Catalina GNoriega, Casey Kaufhold and Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez will open the day’s proceedings when they face China in the gold medal match.
Kaufhold remains in contention in the individual recurve women’s event. She takes on Alejandra Valencia (MEX) in the semifinals on Sunday afternoon.
You can watch the recurve finals through Archery+. All the latest scores and results can be found here.
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