Literally shooting in her backyard, Miranda Leek (Des Moines, Iowa) was one of two U.S. archers to qualify to represent the United States at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in August. Also qualifying to compete on behalf of the U.S. Youth Olympic Team was Benjamin Chu (Flural Park, N.Y.). They are now nominated to the 2010 U.S. Youth Olympic Team for archery, pending final approval from the U.S. Olympic Committee.
The pair of archers each had to come from behind at the 2010 U.S. Youth Olympic Games Team Trials that were contested in conjunction during the 2010 JOAD National Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, June 24-27. Leek earned a possible 10 out of 12 points in the U.S. Youth Olympic Games Team Trials, while Chu won 8.5 points out of 12.
The U.S. Youth Olympic Games Team Trials' participants were selected based on points given out within four areas of competition: 1. Qualification round; 2. Elimination round; 3. Round robin; and 4. Three-arrow set score average from the round robin. The competition for the team trials were held over a two-day period.
Each of the boy's and girl's competitions was determined by the three-arrow average bonus. The tight competition for Leek was in a back and forth battle between Shannon Ostling and herself. Ostling finished first in the qualifying round, and then Leek rebounded by winning the elimination round. The round robin portion of the event ultimately decided the outcome as both girls each won two of the round robin contests. This only left the three-arrow average to decide that Leek would be the U.S. qualifier for the 2010 Youth Olympic Games.
In an extremely close tournament, Chu was in second place after the first day, while Sean Curtin took top honors in the qualification round. The hot ticket for the second day went to Peter Kelchner, who was sitting in fourth after day one. Chu outlasted Kelchner's push on day two by a mere half point to qualify for the Youth Olympic Games.
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