MEDELLIN, Colombia - Following an incredible showing in Wroclaw, recognized as Team USA's strongest performance in recent history, there were high hopes for this fourth stage of the Archery World Cup circuit. With 5 archers qualified for the World Cup Final in Mexico City, and potential for one more, USA is hot this year. Recurve Saturday featured U.S. archers shooting in both team finals.
The U.S. women, Ariel Gibilaro (North Branford, Connecticut), Mackenzie Brown (Flint, Texas) and five-time Olympian Khatuna Lorig (West Hollywood, California) took on Mexico for the first match of the morning: team bronze. Mexico looked poised for the win with an initial 4-0 lead with strong scores and Lorig posting the U.S.'s only arrow in the 10.
Then in the third set, Aida Roman loosed a 2 and the tides changed for the U.S. archers. Shooting straight 9s in the fourth set to go to a tie-breaker, Gibilaro put the team's first arrow within a centimeter of the dead middle of the target. With golds from her teammates they came back to take the win!
World Archery reported yesterday: "Consistent through each the stages of the 2015 Archery World Cup, Korea and the USA started fast. In Medellin, the two teams seeded first and second with 2036 and 1999 points on the ranking round, respectively."
They continued: "Im Dong Hyun and Brady Ellison (Globe, Arizona) were on the Korea and USA teams that met each other in the semifinals of London 2012. The underdog States won and propelled themselves to Olympic silver. Korea settled for bronze. For the history alone, it could be the most exciting match of the day."
Korea did not lose a single set throughout the whole tournament and was able to keep the streak. Winning in yet another 6-0 shut out, Korea took the gold and USA settled for silver. However, the USA did not go down without a fight; Daniel McLaughlin (West Chester, Ohio) posted several strong 10s while Collin Klimitchek (Victoria, Texas) and Ellison improved throughout the match to finish with a 57, just shy of Korea's 58.
Competition resumes tomorrow with Compound Sunday as USA takes on women's individual gold and team bronze, men's individual bronze and team gold, and mixed team bronze - a mouthful, but USA in every event! Tune in for live scores and streaming here. For more, follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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