ANTALYA, Turkey - USA's compound men's team continues to be unstoppable. The reigning World Champion trio of Braden Gellenthien, Steve Anderson and Kris Schaff immediately struck gold their first time out the gate together at last year's World Cup Berlin.
At the World Cup season opener this year, Reo Wilde swapped in for Anderson on a higher qualification score, and with Anderson in the coach's box, the men in red, white and blue still took strong victories to claim the gold.
With Anderson back in the mix this morning, the #1 seeded team continued to gel and improve their performance throughout their matches. Taking a shoot-off win in the 1/8th, the team then earned a 237-234 decision over a strong team from the Netherlands, followed by a 237-224 win over Russia to face Korea for the gold this weekend.
In individual competition, all four U.S. compound men were through to this morning's 1/16th round.
Mass devastation upset many archers and ended several U.S. runs for the podium. Brady Ellison and Jack Williams, the sole U.S. recurve archers left in the competition both fell in the 1/16th. Wilde and Anderson posted 146 and 147/150 respectively, but it was not enough to advance. The last two standing compound women, Paige Gore and Robyn Repp went head to head and it was Gore who took the win with a 147.
In the 1/8th, Gore's second 147 was the highest score of all compound women and enough to advance. Schaff posted a second 146 and earned the win while Gellenthien climbed from a strong 149 to a 150 in the first two rounds. In the quarterfinals, Gore again posted the highest score on the field with another consistent 147.
Schaff and Gellenthien also made it through to the semifinals where the two were pitted head to head. After forcing a shoot-off to resolve the tied match, Schaff took the win with a 10 to face the Netherlands' Mike Schloesser for gold while Gellenthien will go up against 29th seed from Iran, Nima Mahboubi Matbooe for bronze.
In the semifinals, Gore posted the highest score on the field yet again to earn a well-deserved shot at gold against hometown favorite - Turkey's Yesim Bostan.
New this year, the individual winners of each stage automatically qualify for the Final, which will come back to Turkey later this fall. "It's obviously a goal of all of us here on the World Cup circuit so that's going to be in the back of my mind, but really my goal this entire week is make every shot count and never shoot a shot that I look back and I wish I didn't," Gore told World Archery.
Competition resumes tomorrow with mixed team elimination matches through the semifinals. Results throughout the competition are available at www.worldarchery.org. The medal matches this weekend will stream live at www.OlympicChannel.com/live. For more, follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Photo: World Archery
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