The final day of the 2010 Archery World Cup Stage 2 in Antalya, Turkey witnessed the continued success of the United States medal haul that was led with U.S. women's compounder Erika Anschutz gold medal, which was her first ever World Cup championship. Braden Gellenthien climbed onto the award stand with a silver medal in men's compound, while U.S. Olympian Brady Ellison brought home the bronze. Just missing out for another piece of hardware was Roger Willet, Jr., in men's compound, who finished fourth.
During the four-day competition, the United States earned a total of eight medals at the second stop of the four qualifying stages of the 2010 Archery World Cup. The pivotal third stage will be hosted by the United States in the Ogden, Utah, Aug. 3-7. For more information on the third stage in the Beehive state, visit www.ogdenwc.com.
Archers compete at four qualifying World Cup stages earning valuable points based on final placement in hopes of earning one of the 32 athlete positions that will compete in the World Cup Finals in Edinburgh, Scotland, Sept. 18-19. The fourth and final qualifying stage will be held in Shanghai, China.
Anschutz started the day squared off against Finland's Ann Lantee in the semifinals where both archers were tied after the first four sets. Anschutz punched her ticket to the championship finals by winning the one-arrow tiebreaker and claimed the overall match 5-4. Anschutz breezed through her final match for the gold by knocking off Great Britain's Nicky Hunt, 7-3.
Gellenthien and Willet were matched against each other in the men's compound semifinals. Gellenthien advanced with a 5-3 decision over his teammate. The championships pitted Gellenthien against Martin Damsbo of Denmark. The first two ends of the compound final went to Damsbo, leaving Gellenthien to make up a 4-0 deficit. Both archers tied in the third and four sets leaving Damsbo ahead 6-2. Gellenthien claimed the fifth set cutting into the score, 6-4. In the sixth set, both archers tied again, however Damsbo earned another set point to win his first ever World Cup gold medal.
Willet's bronze-medal match was similar to Gellenthien's, as it needed six sets to determine a winner. Willet opened up with a 2-0 lead after the first end against Vladas Sigauskas of Lithuania. Both archers tied in the second end moving the match score to 3-1, and then Willet earned two more set points in the third end, for a 5-1 lead. Sigauskas roared back to earn the bronze medal by winning the last three ends for a final 7-5 decision.
Ellison, who won the first stage of the 2010 Archery World Cup in Croatia, opened the day with a heartbreaking semifinal loss to Michele Frangilli of Italy, 6-5, which was decided with a one-arrow shoot-out. In the bronze-medal match against Shungo Tabata of Japan, Ellison quickly returned to his solid form of finding the center. Ellison made quick work of Tabata, winning the first two ends for a 4-0 advantage. Ellison loss the third end 28-27, but maintained a 4-2 advantage. Ellison closed out the competition with three consecutive tens in the fourth end to win the bronze medal, 6-2.
The Archery World Cup, which started in 2006, has been a popular event for FITA, the international federation for archery. The event allows organizers to select unique competition venues. In Antalya, the athletes shot the final matches on the beach that leads to the Mediterranean Sea. The Archery World Cup has grown into one of the annual premiere events for the international federation that attracts approximately 300 athletes from 30 countries at each of the various qualifying stages.
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