Turkey’s Cansu COSKUN shocks Sara LOPEZ, wins individual gold in Poland

Fifteen-arrow match world record holder Sara LOPEZ was a point in front for the first nine arrows of the compound women’s gold final at Wroclaw. But while her opponent’s nerves settled, Colombia’s LOPEZ kept leaking arrows into the nine.

Turkey’s 19-year-old Cansu COSKUN drew level with three arrows to shoot at 114-all, then forced a shoot-off.

“I was so nervous,” she admitted. “I told myself to shoot a 10.”

COSKUN, like LOPEZ, made her debut on the World Cup circuit last year – but unlike Sara, who has won a stage before, Cansu’s previous highest finish was making the last 16. Now she’s done even better than teammate Yesim BOSTAN, who came fourth at the Turkish team’s home stage on the Antalya beach two months ago.

It’s a second Archery World Cup stage silver for Sara LOPEZ this year, after she collected one in Shanghai to start the season.

Russia’s Albina LOGINOVA – the two-time world champion who is qualified for Lausanne 2014 – needed a 10 with her last arrow to win the bronze medal, but she scored nine. Her match with Christie COLIN went to a tiebreaker.

“I like shooting the shoot-offs,” said LOGINOVA, “and most of the time, it goes well for me.”

Albina said she hoped to shoot a better arrow than the nine she managed with her single arrow: “I released, saw it and said: ‘oops’!”

It was enough: Christie COLIN shot a wide nine, and Albina took bronze. But she was pragmatic about her shooting, saying that although her shoot-off arrow was good, her arrows keep hitting the target low.

“Sometimes I don’t finish my shot,” the tall Russian archer explained. “My left bow hand drops before it should. That’s what happened to open the second end, when I shot an eight.”

“I’ll work on it. Fix it. It’ll definitely be better before Lausanne.”

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