Danish men, Colombian women deprive USA of consecutive world titles

Special changes were made to the rules today due to the extremely windy conditions: the archers were given 4 minutes instead of 2 to shoot their six arrows per end, and shot on one target face instead of two. The theme of the competition was mainly to just reach the target.

Men

After a year in which the United States had unusual losses at the World Cup stages in Antalya and Medellin, the question was: could they keep their world crown for the sixth consecutive time?

Top qualifiers, the same men as two years ago – defending individual silver medallist Jesse BROADWATER, world n°1 Reo WILDE and n°2 Braden GELLENTHIEN – had a surprisingly difficult first-round match against 16th seed Turkey, but pulled ahead to claim a 7-point win. Their next opponent was Denmark, in a quarter-final that tasted like a final. Martin DAMSBO, Stephan HANSEN and Patrick LAURSEN upset the United States in the final here at the World Cup in Antalya in June - but that was the lone Danish victory in seven meetings since 2010. One of these encounters was the final of the 2011 World Championships.

Denmark took an early lead this time around. Four misses by the United States, and only one from Denmark, was too much to compensate for. The European archers won, 176-165.

With momentum behind them, the Danes shot a clear victory, 210-185, over France in their semi-final. “We almost kept the dot on the target... I mean the boss!” said World Cup Final winner DAMSBO. He attributed today’s success to “a great team spirit, all the way”. Stephan HANSEN, 18, added that the team used short rods on their bows as “if you don't risk something, you don’t win. We tried it, and it worked.”

It is the first opportunity Denmark have had to win a World Championships gold medal since 1950, when the country’s recurve men were champions. The Scandinavian country has never won gold in the compound division, though they did claim bronze in 2005 and silver in 2009.

The second semi-final featured third-seed South Africa and the surprising n°15, Sweden, who upset n°2 Netherlands in the first round and Russia in the quarter-finals. It was clear from the start which way this match would go: DP BIERMAN, Patrick ROUX (husband of bronze finalist Gerda ROUX) and Gabriel BADENHORST outscored Morgan LUNDIN, Magnus CARLSSON and Glenn LINSJO by more than 30 points to advance to their first World Championships final.

The ecstatic African archers explained their team adapted well to the wind: “We managed to work out the changing conditions very fast. We tried a few things and it started working – and we gained the confidence from there.”

The gold medal match will be the fourth encounter between South Africa and Denmark. In 2010 South Africa scored a victory, and Denmark claimed two in 2011. The two teams have not met since.

The bronze medal match will be between France and Sweden. France was the World Cup stage winner in Medellin, but it is Sweden's first chance for a podium since 2009.

France – with Sébastien BRASSEUR, individual finalist Pierre-Julien DELOCHE and World Cup finalist Dominique GENET – is the favourite to win the bronze. It would be the first World Championships podium for the country after a French team with a very different line-up won silver in 1995.

Women

The women’s competition also had a finals-level match-up in the elimination stages: a battle between reigning world champions, the United States, and new title-challengers Colombia. These countries had met three times already this year on the World Cup stage, in Antalya – where Colombia won a historic first gold medal – in Medellin, for USA’s revenge, and again in Wroclaw – which the United States won as well. Their team featured only one athlete from 2011 – world n°1 Erika JONES – and newcomers to the World Championships Carli COCHRAN and Gabrielle CYR.

While the first round scores spoke in favour of the USA (172 against 166), the Colombians had a plan to counter the wind. They shot wearing weighted backpacks to gain stability, an idea concocted by recurve teammate Ana Maria RENDON... and it seemed to work!

Colombia took a shy lead – 1 point – over their opponent in the first end, and increased it greatly with the help of two US misses. They won the match 191-175, and advanced to semi-finals against a team on a surprising run: Great Britain.

Seeded n°6, Danielle BROWN, Rikki BINGHAM and Andrea GALES had scored victories over Mexico and Canada in the first two rounds. In the first international encounter between these two teams, the South American archers took a commanding lead from the first end (42-31), and didn’t stop increasing it. Victory: 194-165. Aura María BRAVO, Sara LOPEZ and Alejandra USQUIANO are now in a position to win Colombia its first World Championships gold medal.

On the other side of the brackets, France posted the highest women’s score of the day (208) in the first round against Venezuela, before facing top-qualifier Korea in the quarter-finals. Five misses and struggles for all six athletes culminated in a 158-point tie after 24 arrows. Sophie DODEMONT, Pascale LEBECQUE and Sandrine VANDIONANT won the shoot-off 27-24. Their opponent in the semi-finals was n°13 Netherlands, who upset n°4 Russia – who were led by 2009 and 2011 world champion Albina LOGINOVA – in the first round and beat South Africa by just three points in quarter-finals.

In the only previous encounter between France and Netherlands, at the 2012 European Championships, France won on the way to the bronze medal. Their semi-final match was one of the closest of the day. The Netherlands trailed during the first two ends but came back in the third end to claim a five-point lead. The advantage remained through the last end, giving the Dutch team of Inge VAN CASPEL, Irina MARKOVIC and Martine COUWENBERG the win.

Despite experience of shooting in the windy Netherlands, VAN CASPEL joked that “this was more wind than just wind” and added that the result “was a matter of power of concentration”.

“Shoot at a target, and get the arrows to land in the target face. That was the only plan – and we managed to do it pretty well”, said the Dutch ladies. “It was fun, but it was hard work. We laughed, but at the same time we stayed a bit serious and shot the target straight. It was good training for the finals.”

For this Dutch team, it is their first shot at a World Championships gold medal. What makes the achievement even more remarkable is that this is COUWENBERG's second international event. Their golden duel will be Colombia and the Netherlands first international meeting in this division – while in the bronze medal match, France and Great Britain have their first chances to claim a medal in an event they have not had a podium in for quite some time.

World Archery Communication