LIMA, Peru – Following many records in high qualification rounds to start the Pan American Games yesterday, Team USA Archery had another outstanding day of incredible performances at the quadrennial continental championships. In the leadup to Tokyo 2020, this is the USA’s best chance to earn a women’s quota spot for the Games before next summer, in addition to the men’s spot earned at the World Archery Championships in June.
Defending Pan Am Games Champion Khatuna Lorig is through to the semifinals where she will look to take the title again. In a tough semifinal matchup, five-time Olympian Lorig will meet USA’s young hotshot Casey Kaufhold. Kaufhold is the youngest archer at the Games at just 15-years old, but with a personal best yesterday, Kaufhold qualified 2nd and is in strong contention.
In the women’s team’s best showing this season, Erin Mickelberry also made it to the quarterfinals before losing a one-arrow shoot off after a close match with Mexico’s Alejandra Valencia.
Yesterday, the USA trio also sealed a spot in the recurve women’s team gold final against Mexico – a guaranteed-exciting match to follow.
The recurve individual semifinals and all medal matches will be contested this Sunday, after the men’s matches tomorrow and the compound finals on Saturday.
Compound is making its debut at the Pan American Games this week – an accomplishment of major significance in the push for Olympic inclusion. Representing Team USA, world target silver medalist Paige Pearce, the winningest youth archer in American history, is one of just ten compound women included in the Games. Pearce qualified fourth yesterday and breezed through the quarterfinals with a 147-144 victory to face world number one Sara Lopez in the semis. Lopez took the win 149-142 and Pearce will shoot for bronze on Saturday.
Complete results from the competition are available at www.worldarchery.org. For more, follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Photos courtesy of Getty Images.
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