The United States will fight for two mixed team gold medals

The Mixed Team eliminations took place this afternoon at the Shanghai World Cup. Mixed teams are made of the top man and woman of each country from qualifications. Matches consist of four ends of four arrows, two by each athlete, with cumulative scores out of a possible 160. 

Recurve 

Korea was the strongest team in the first two rounds. The pair made of OH Jin Hyek and CHANG Hye Jin, both seeded No. 1 individually, easily defeated Brazil in the 1/8 elimination round, before outscoring Ukraine by 8 points in the quarter-finals. 

USA and Mexico looked strong as well; both totalled 147 points in the 1/8 elimination round to advance to the quarter-finals, where both had easy victories; USA over Russia, and Mexico over Chinese Taipei. 

Korea surprisingly faltered in semi-finals. OH and CHANG suffered too many 8s to trail the No. 5 USA 35-37, 70-74, 106-112. Olympic medallists Khatuna LORIG and Brady ELLISON finally won the match 149-144. “It was finally nice to shoot well today”, commented ELLISON. “It is always fun to shoot the mixed team. 149 in the rain is good but I would always prefer 150 in the sun!” 

In the gold medal match, the USA will faced India’s Deepika KUMARI/Jayanta TALUKDAR, who defeated Mexico by a large margin in the other semi-final. No. 2 seeded Aida ROMAN/Juan Rene SERRANO will meet Korea for the bronze. 

“I was shooting really strongly, sometimes in the 10 but always looking to improve. It is always great to be in the finals of a World Cup”, commented SERRANO. 

Compound 

The United States, seeded No. 1, were expected to qualify for the gold medal match and they didn’t disappoint. Erika JONES and Braden GELLENTHIEN shot the highest score of the 1/8 round at 157, easily defeating Kazakhstan, and repeated that winning score in their quarter-final against Germany. In the semi-final, they built a comfortable lead from the start against Italy. Marcella TONIOLI and Sergio PAGNI could never come back. 

On the other side of the draw, Korea surprised once again. Seeded No. 2, the pair made of SEOK Ji Hyun and MIN Lihong, won their first match with a total of 156 points (just one point lower than the United States in the 1/8 round). Korea went on to defeat Mexico with a four-point margin in the quarter-final, and doubled that gap in the semi-final against a weaker opponent – surprising No. 14 Finland – for a victory 154-146. 

Korea will challenge the “unbeatable” USA in the gold medal match, while Italy will be the heavy favourites in the bronze medal match against Finland. 

World Archery Communication