After strong rounds of qualification for most of the US archers in Shanghai the attention quickly turned to the mixed team events. On the recurve side the two athletes competing for the US were Brady Ellison and Khatuna Lorig and they were seeded #2 based on their qualification round scores. The US cruised on Wednesday through the rounds of competition defeating Australia 6-2 before consecutive shutouts 6-0 of both Denmark and Korea. The US advanced to the final where they will take on #4 seed Chinese Taipei. Chinese Taipei upset #1 seed India 5-3 to reach the final. The gold medal match will not take place until Sunday. The compound team of Crystal Gauvin and Alex Wifler had the better seed as they were ranked first in qualification but were upset in the first round by #16 seed Malaysia 153-151. Malaysia did continue to shoot well and reached the semifinals before being defeated by #4 seed Colombia.
In men’s recurve Ellison had the top individual score in qualification with a 697, ten better than his closest competitor. Zach Garrett made it two Americans in the top ten with a ninth place 672. Jacob Wukie was 37th with a 663 while Sean McLaughlin shot a 662 in 39th. The top three (Ellison, Garrett, Wukie) were the top scoring team, 15 ahead of the Netherlands, and earned the #1 seed for the team competition. The US will have a neighborly match with Canada to start things off before taking on the Australia/Great Britain winner in the next round. Their first non-English speaking opponent would be in the semifinals where #4 Chinese Taipei and #5 Korea are the most likely matchups. The US beat both Canada and Australia as the advanced to the semifinals at the world championships last year. In the individual competition Ellison has a bye to the round of 32 while Garrett just missed out on the final double-bye and starts in round one with the lowest ranked competitor, Chun Ngai So of Hong Kong. Wukie will face Majid Mirrahimi of Iran and McLaughlin takes on Fatih Bozlar of Turkey.
In women’s recurve Lorig was 12th in qualifying with a 656 with the next American La Nola Pritchard in 35th with a 645. Mackenzie Brown completed the team score with a 64th place 620 while Ariel Gibilaro shot a 613, good for 72nd. In this event the field is not as large so Lorig did receive a first round bye in 12th place. Pritchard takes on Maira Alejandra Sepulveda of Colombia in the first round while Brown faces off with Randi Degn of Denmark. Finally Gibilaro is matched up against Hui Cao of China. While the US didn’t have a great qualification score for the team recurve event they still qualified in 13th place and will start the knockout rounds by taking on #4 seed India. India was the silver medalist at the world championships so they will be a big challenge for the US.
In the women’s compound event Gauvin was as good as expected with a second-best 705. Danielle Reynolds also had a good day for the US with a 16th place score of 691. Those two will be joined in the team event by Dahlia Crook who shot a 680 and placed 37th. Lexi Keller was not far behind in 44th with a 677. Due to a field of just 68 all four US women received byes for the first round and Gauvin has a bye to the round of 32. While Gauvin and Reynolds don’t know their first opponents yet Crook will meet Stephanie Sarai Salinas of Mexico in the round of 64 while Keller faces Kim Yun-Hee of Korea. Kim was the world champion last year so that’s quite the tough draw for Keller. The team was seeded fourth and will take on #13 Turkey in round one. The #1 seed that the US could end up facing is Korea and Kim Yun-Hee.
Nothing in qualification was as impressive as the dominance by the US archers in the men’s compound. The US had three of the top five and four of the top 11. The US went 3-4-5 with just a point separating each spot. Alex Wifler was the top one with a 712 while Steve Anderson notched a 711 and Reo Wilde a 710. Braden Gellenthien would have been the top scorer from all but six countries but he won’t even make the team competition with an 11th place 707. The US team is, unsurprisingly, seeded first. What is perhaps a surprise is that they only topped the Netherlands by three points for that spot. The first matchup for the US is #16 seed Hong Kong with South Africa and Turkey the possible opponents in round two. Korea or Russia would be the most likely semifinal opponents. With just 79 individuals competing the bracket is full of byes for the US archers. The top three have byes through to the round of 32 while Gellenthien only has a bye for the first round. None of the four know yet who their first opponent will be.
Thursday’s competition will be only on the individual side with the finalists being determined in each of the four events.
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