20 October 2011 - ELLISON to meet SERRANO in Pan Am Games semifinals on Saturday

ELLISON to meet SERRANO in semifinals on Saturday Guadalajara – 20 October 2011 Juan René SERRANO (MEX)    The number one archer in the year Brady ELLISON (USA) and Mexico’s biggest hope for a medal in the Pan American Games, Juan Rene SERRANO will meet in the first semifinal match on Saturday to decide who will shoot for gold versus the winner of the match between Crispin DUENAS (CAN) and the Colombian teenager Daniel PINEDA.   ELLISON won his three matches very easily, but SERRANO needed to take advantage of an arrow in the 6 ring shot by his opponent Daniel REZENDE XAVIER from Brazil to win the last set and then the match 6-4. DUENAS overwhelmed Jake KAMINSKI (USA) 6-0 while PINEDA defeated Juan Carlos STEVENS (CUB) 6-2.

Not many surprises occurred during the session, as ELLISON, DUENAS, PINEDA and SERRANO were the top four archers in the Ranking Round. The major upset came earlier in the morning, during the 1/16 round, when David VILCHEZ (VEN) defeated the gold medal winner in the World Cup in Shanghai, Joe FANCHIN (USA) 6-4.

Ten women’s teams and nine men’s teams will take part in the team event on Friday. The 1/8 round will include matches between Ecuador and El Salvador (men), plus Puerto Rico – Colombia and Chile – Brazil (women). Mexico and the United States are the favourite teams in both categories, as they ranked in the top two positions in the ranking round. The US men’s team will try to win this event for the ninth consecutive time, as they have always been champions since the first time archery was included in the program of the Pan American Games in 1979. On the women’s side, a strong battle is expected between Mexico and the United States. The Americans won all the titles between 1979 and 2003, but ranked only third in Rio 2007, where Colombia and Canada were first and second.

All individual semifinal and final matches will take place on Saturday.

Sergio FONT
World Archery Communication