Danish men going for fifth consecutive podium

Stretching back to the last stage of the 2014 Archery World Cup season, which happened to be held in Wroclaw, the Danish compound men’s team has absolutely dominated.

Martin Damsbo, Stephan Hansen and Patrick Laursen took gold in Poland that year, gold in Shanghai to start the 2015 season, then took silver at the second stage of the Archery World Cup in Antalya and won a bronze medal at their home world championships in Copenhagen.

Realistically, the run began even earlier than that. Back at the prior World Archery Championships, in Belek in 2013, the three won the compound men’s team world title.

Not only has the team’s personnel been one of the most consistent on the circuit – never deviating from the Hansen-Damsbo-Laursen line-up in all that time – but the results they’ve collecting as a group and individually rank among the most impressive in the world.

Damsbo won the Archery World Cup in 2013, Hansen the world outdoor title in Copenhagen.

Stephan said he’d never felt anything like it before, after taking gold in front of his Danish Parliament and in front of friends and family: “A lot of people expected me to win.”

Whatever their success apart, together the Viking squad is arguably the most feared on the field.

Top qualifiers in Copenhagen, they lost to Canada in the semifinals, then beat Italy to take the third spot on the podium. It was a huge achievement, but undeniably not what the Danes wanted and were expecting from their title defence. They wanted gold.

At Wroclaw 2015, Team Denmark is guaranteed a fifth international medal in a row when they face another giant of the compound men’s team competition: USA.

The key to the match for the European boys might just be Martin Damsbo – who, at the top of the sport since he made his international debut back in 2002, might just have found those few points in form that allowed him to climb three individual podiums in 2013.

Damsbo will shoot for individual bronze in Poland, too.

“I have felt all year my shooting has been good and strong but something was just missing,” explained Martin. “This time, everything just clicked and even though I had some bad starts I trusted the form and got it back on track. It was really nice that, for once, I got it to work as it should.”

Martin qualified ninth in Wroclaw, then knocked out Copenhagen silver medallist Rajat Chauhan of India and the USA’s Braden Gellenthien, top individual seed, on his way through the brackets. Gellenthien will shoot as part of the USA squad that will take to the field against Denmark in the Wroclaw team final.

Damsbo was within striking distance of an individual gold final berth, but things went awry in his semifinal.

“I’m really annoyed about the release failure that brought me out of focus,” he said. Aiming, early in his match against Asian Games Champion Esmaeil Ebadi, his shot wouldn’t execute, his release aid not engaging.

Martin dropped the arrow in the ground and had to reset after the disturbance, but it threw him off his game. Ebadi took the match, 147 to 145.

“I had to work really hard to get the trust in my shot back,” continued Martin, on the practice field on Friday ahead of his compound Saturday team and individual finals matches in Wroclaw.

“I will be ready for tomorrow.”

With USA-Denmark and the rest of the medal match slate in Poland promising fireworks, so will we!