Gold medal for the USA and Great Britain

Athletes competed in the Team finals in Val d’Isere this afternoon. The very hot weather meant no wind, and the sun made it difficult for the archers. A special thank you to the 1992 Olympic champion Sebastien FLUTE who assisted us with commentaries during competition.
 Men – Gold Medal Match   United States of America (USA/1) v Finland (FIN/6) The USA team who ranked No. 1 after qualifications was made up of Olympic silver medallist Jake KAMINSKI, the defending compound champion Dave COUSINS, and the individual finalist Alan EAGLETON. Finland surprised the field by making this far in the competition. Both teams shot tied after the first target with 14 points. Finland, who beat Italy in the semi-final, shot a consistent 14 on the second target. The Americans upstaged the Finish team in this round with a 4-6-6, building a two-point lead (30-28) at the halfway mark. The wind picked up for the 3rd target and was reflected in the scores, 3-4-5. The Finnish archers shot the same total on the third target (12 points), which meant the margin stayed the same (2 points). For the final target, Finland shot 2-5-3, opening the door for the Americans. Alan EAGLETON shot a Miss, followed by a poor shot by KAMINSKI. COUSINS came through with the last arrow with 6 the six points they needed for the gold medal.   Men – Bronze Medal Match   France (FRA/5) v Italy (ITA/2) The French team had a strong start on the first target, 5-6-5, to gain the lead over Italy 16-14. Jean-Charles VALLADONT, two-time world team silver medallist in recurve, earned the 6 points for the team. Italy shot scores of 4-6-6 points in the second target to put pressure on the local team. France shot strongly 4-5-5 in the same round but it wasn’t good enough to stay in the lead. The teams tied 30-30 before the third target. The next round, France shot 4-4-4 which turned out to not be strong enough to stay ahead. Italy scored 14 points to take the lead by two points, 44-42. Italy scored a 2-4-6 on the last target, meaning France needed 15 points to win. The French shot a 5-4, putting the pressure on Olivier ROY. With the perfect aim, ROY was able to score a perfect 6 winning the match for his team. The hometown crowd gave France a huge round of applause for winning the bronze on their own soil.   Women – Gold Medal Match   Great Britain (GBR/5) v France (FRA/2) Great Britain shot in the order barebow – recurve – compound for superb scores of 6-5-5 on the first target. The French team made of Sophie DODEMONT (FRA), 2008 Olympic bronze medallist and 2006 field silver medallist, Sandrine VANDIONANT (FRA), multiple medallist on the World Cup circuit, and Eliette LALOUER, shot 4-4-4 to trail 12-16. France recovered two points in the second target to trail 25-27. Great Britain shot 4-4-6 on the third target. Sandrine VANDIONANT opened the third target with a perfect 6. The next two arrows from Great Britain weren’t as strong giving the team only 6 additional points two seconds before the time limit. The French archers concluded the match with 4-2-3, which meant the British ladies needed to score at least 6 points in their last target to win. GB shot a 2 and 3, and the final athlete delivered a 4 with her compound bow. Great Britain, who led from the start, was never threatened during this match. Gold medal for Great Britain, silver for France.
  
Women – Bronze Medal Match   United States of America (USA/8) v Germany (GER/3 Germany, with the Olympian Elena RICHTER, scored 15 points in the first two targets, putting them in the lead 30-25. The American ladies, shooting in the new order compound – recurve – barebow in the third target, scored 4-0-2. Germany increased their lead by three points to lead 38-32. On this third target, both teams missed getting zero points – the USA recurve archer aimed at the wrong target, and German barebow archer aimed too high. Germany shot the last target first, and with 10 points, they were in a good position to win the bronze medal – the USA needed to score 16 points to tie. The first two American archers shot 6-4, and the barebow shooter needed a 6 to win. In the end, the bronze medal went to Germany.   Junior Men – Gold Medal Match   Germany (GER/1) v Great Britain (GBR/2) The best barebow archer Henrik HORNUNG scored 14 points in the first target to give his team a 1-point lead over Great Britain. Several arrows were very close to a line. The first two shots for Great Britain on the second target were low, and their third archer compensated and shot a 4. Germany had the advantage of shooting second, meaning they knew how many points they needed to shoot from watching their opponents. They shot 1 more point (12-11) to increase their lead to 28-26. Alex BRIDGMAN recovered a point in the third target to trail by only one point. In the last target, the British barebow shooter missed the target, BRIDGMAN scored a 6, followed by a 3 by the recurve shooter. Germany concluded with 4-1-4, for a total of 9 points for both teams on that target. Germany totalled two more points than their opponents overall, to win the match 50-48 for the gold medal.   Junior Men – Bronze Medal Match   Slovenia (SLO/4) v Italy (ITA/3) Marco MORELLO led the recurve qualifications but Slovenia had the best start in this match leading 13-12. Italy scored 12 points again in the second target with Slovenia getting a 6-6-4 increasing their lead to 5 points, 29-24. Slovenia suffered in the third target (3-6-4). Italy started with 5-6, but their last shooter MORELLO concluded with a 3 and the team continued to trail 39-42. Shooting first in the last target, Italy had the opportunity to put the pressure on their opponents. Their order was barebow – compound – recurve, which scored a 4-4-5. After leading the match from the beginning, Slovenia needed 11 points in the last target to win the bronze medal. The final scores were 2-6-3, just enough to claim the medal.   Junior Women – Gold Medal Match   Italy (ITA/1) v Great Britain (GBR/2) The Italian girls, who had a bye to this final, shot 4-5-6 in the first target. Great Britain shot 3-5-5 to trail 13-14, but came back in the second target to take the lead 26-22. Italy’s first arrow of the third target was a Miss. Great Britain shot better scores than the Italians on the last two targets to claim the gold medal. The USA won the bronze medal.   Stay tuned for the individual finals tomorrow.   World Archery Communication