Indoor World Championships - Quotes of Team Finals

Recurve Men   Vic WUNDERLE (USA) photo left – Gold I think I have won eight medals at the senior level in world championships or Olympic Games. I am very happy to have won this one with such a young talent as Brady (ELLISON) and Staten (HOLMES) with whom I have shot when we were 15 years old!   Archery is my life and I love it. It’s fun, I meet a lot of people I travel all around the world. I think the archery community is just great. Even if some countries in the world don’t have good relationships, you never feel it in the archery community. Everybody goes well with everybody. I have been a professional since 2000 when I came out of college. It’s tough to make a living in archery. I have to travel 200 days a year and sometimes train in the rain, but I am so glad to say “I love my job.” I earn my money based on the results of my competitions, and sometimes I make some personal appearance for business or school. I also give some archery lessons. The manufacturers are helping me a lot and I must thank them. We’ll see if I get a regular job with one of them in the future or if I will use my College Degree in Wild Life and Fishing Science, but for now I want to keep having fun with my bow and arrows!   Juan Rene SERRANO (USA) – Bronze We have been training indoor for two weeks only, so we must be happy with this bronze medal! I think the technique is not so much different than outdoor. Of course, the aiming and the environment are different.   We came to get more match experience against tough competition. The National Olympic Committee is supporting us more thanks to our good results in Beijing.  Recurve Women   Elena TONETTA (ITA) photo right – Gold This is the first team indoor gold medal for Italy and of course the first gold medal at a senior level for me. I am very happy because I did not have a great 2008 season. After the Olympic Games, I stopped for two months and we started to shoot indoor. Personally, I am still not shooting great. The target is so small in indoor that I don’t feel comfortable. You have really to pay attention to every single detail. However, as a team, we have such a high spirit that we feel we can beat anyone. We have been shooting for about two years now and we really believe in ourselves. Probably we were a bit lucky to win twice in the shoot-off, but we know we can pull out some 10s even if there are a few seconds left in the clock. Pia (LIONETTI) is very good at that.   Natalia ERDYNIYEVA (RUS) – Bronze This is my third bronze medal at a world championship in my life. I won one in junior team and one in senior individual in Leipzig. We have a very young team, because in fact, I am already the most experienced archer. Shooting first, I try to put my teammates in a comfortable position.   We don’t know yet who will compete in the outdoor season. We need to qualify through the Russian Championships.  Compound Men   Braden GELLENTHIEN (USA) photo left – Gold and perfect team world record holder of 240 points! The great thing about team world records is that it’s not only one person having a great day. It’s the three of us! I thought about so many ways to end this week but none could have been as good as this. We did perfect scores in practice but it’s nothing compared to competition. I thought about that last shot many times. However, when I was on the line my mind was blank. I just thought about my technique. When I released the shot, I knew it was going in! People tell me it looked like a smooth shot, but it wasn’t. I felt a lot of pressure.   We were not happy with our scores in the matches yesterday so we wanted to come out today and make sure that we show the US compound men’s team is the best in the world. We all rose to the occasion.   This is my sixth world title (one individual and five in team). I have been a professional archer since spring 2008 when I graduated from the university. It’s tough because you need to keep winning to earn you money. But with days like this, it’s a great life!   Sebastien BRASSEUR (FRA) – Bronze We wanted a medal and we got it, even if we would have preferred a revenge match in the final against the USA. Yesterday, we didn’t play well in the semi-final when the pressure rose. We must learn from it. We talked about it last night and today we fought as a team. Although we were trailing in the second end, we put pressure with a perfect third end. It wasn’t easy at the end because I had to shot twice with little time left on the clock after my teammate shot 10s. Finally, we are happy!  Compound Women   Erika ANSCHUTZ (USA) photo right – Gold It’s my first gold after a bronze and silver at the senior level! I hope to keep on going this way! It’s good to me on a team with an archer like Mary HAMM. She is not only a great archer but also a good friend. She was also a coach during the 2007 World Championships in Leipzig.   I will go to the first World Cup in Santo Domingo in a few weeks and we’ll see how it goes after that.   FITA Communication