Danish team best compound men at Wroclaw; Italy beat USA to bronze

Even with a good start and comfortable lead, Martin DAMSBO said Denmark didn’t relax: “almost all our matches here ended with good score gaps in our favour, but we never, ever let ourselves feel invincible.”

“The compound field here is so strong and there’s always that little gust of wind. It could blow at the wrong moment and turn everything around.”

“Each match could go either way.”

The compound men’s gold medal match in Wroclaw went very much Denmark’s way. DAMSBO, Stephan HANSEN and Patrick LAURSEN beat Mexico by 13 points. The reigning World Champions fine-tuned a team rotation issue on the practice range, before settling in to a match in which they averaged more than 58 points an end.

Smiling, Martin said: “we’ve had a good end to this season. Next season we just need to start earlier…”

Sergio PAGNI, third in the Italian team’s shooting order and the most experienced member of the squad, could remember that his nation’s women team beat the USA last year in Wroclaw – but drew a blank on the compound men’s series history.

The last time the Italy men beat the USA was in 2008. “Antalya,” memories sprang back into Sergio’s mind. “Now I remember!”

For the first time in six years, Italy beat USA – and did it to win an Archery World Cup stage bronze. PAGNI shot Italy’s last arrow, the last of the match and a 10. It was the third in three arrows for the Italians, and shot with purpose.

“I didn’t know what I need to score to win,” said Sergio. “Normally, if I started thinking about it I wouldn’t win anything: no world cups, no world championships. I think about the shot, nothing more.”

“We shot well. We don’t normally shoot so well in the finals,” PAGNI admitted, laughing.

The USA’s Braden GELLENTHIEN had switched to a wrist-strap style release aid and taped up his drawing arm before the match. He pulled a muscle in his forearm during eliminations yesterday, and will shoot this afternoon’s mixed team final with the strapping.

Follow results from the last 2014 Archery World Cup stage in Wroclaw.