The US won two golds in Medellin this week and they both came on the men’s side. After the compound men’s team won gold on Saturday it was Brady Ellison‘s turn to do so in the recurve individual final on Sunday. Ellison smoked #9 Miguel Alvarino Garcia of Spain 7-1 to grab his first individual medal of the year. Ellison also made it two medals in two events for the US after Zach Garrett‘s silver in Shanghai. The women’s recurve team of Erin Mickelberry, Lauren Clamon, and Anna Miscione didn’t do as well in the bronze medal final where they were shutout by Mexico.

Overall this was a strong weekend for the US though their 2-5 record in final matches was a bit disappointing. The next World Cup stop is in Antalya, Turkey starting June 12th.

Previous Archery World Cup Coverage:
Medellin Preview
Wednesday Recap
Thursday Recap
Friday Recap
Saturday Recap

Unfortunately for the US on Saturday it seemed everything was coming up silver for the US in the compound finals. Despite having a competitor in four of the five gold medal finals only the men’s compound team was able to win their final. Headlining the tough day was Crystal Gauvin who went 0-3 in finals on Saturday and had to settle for just two silvers.

The first final was the compound women’s team of Crystal Gauvin, Emile Bee, and Dhalia Cook taking on #1 Colombia. The US scored 11 less than their semifinal round 233 from Friday and lost the final 229-222, though they grabbed their first women’s compound medal of the year. The next final was the bright spot on the day for the US, gold from the men’s team of Alex Wifler, Steve Anderson, and Braden Gellenthien. They defeated #6 Italy in the final by a score of 232-229. This was the second time in two tries this year the US team had reached the final but their first win.

The mixed teams competed next with Gauvin and Wifler unable to grab an extra medal as they lost to #7 France in the bronze medal match by a narrow 150-149 margin. Gauvin lost her third match of the day in the compound women’s gold final on a tiebreaker against #1 Sara Lopez after they tied at 146. Guavin had been knocked out in the quarterfinals in Shanghai so medaling here was a step forward. Finally in the men’s final the unexpected matchup of #18 Reo Wilde and #16 Sergio Pagni saw the Italian get the better of the matchup 146-143, by far Wilde’s worst shooting match of the competition. Still a good result for Wilde who had been knocked out in the round of 32 in Shanghai.

Sunday’s final day of competition will see medal opportunities for the women’s recurve team of Erin Mickelberry, Lauren Clamon, and Anna Miscione in the bronze medal match and Brady Ellison in the men’s individual gold medal final.

Previous Archery World Cup Coverage:
Medellin Preview
Wednesday Recap
Thursday Recap
Friday Recap

The US is going to exceed their medal count from Shanghai, that much is clear. How many of those will be gold is unclear still but with the US already reaching three gold medal individual finals and two of their teams reaching gold medal finals on Friday the US can come home with no less than five medals, two more than they won in China.

The easiest task was probably that of the US compound women’s team of Crystal Gauvin, Emile Bee, and Dhalia Cook. Being seeded third of just four teams they needed to win only one match to reach the final and did so easily 233-222 over Italy. They will take on #1 Colombia in the final on Saturday. Gauvin will be participating in the individual, women’s team, and mixed team finals with a chance for a three medal day. The men’s compound team of Alex Wifler, Steve Anderson, and Braden Gellenthien had to win twice to reach the final and took care of their opposition 231-229 against Colombia and 232-227 against #4 France. Their opponent in the final will be #6 Italy.

In men’s recurve the #2 seed team of Brady Ellison, Jake Kaminski, and Jacob Wukie had to face competition from some neighbors in the first two rounds. They shutout Cuba 6-0 to open but lost a tiebreaker and the quarterfinal match to Mexico 5-4. Doing surprisingly well on the other hand was the #10 women’s recurve team of Erin Mickelberry, Lauren Clamon, and Anna Miscione. Despite struggling in the individual competition the team pulled two upsets (5-4 on a tiebreaker over #7 India and 6-2 over #2 Chinese Taipei) to reach the semifinals where they lost to #3 China 5-1. The US will face #4 Mexico for the bronze medal Sunday.

Saturday is the finals on the compound side. That means Gauvin going for two golds and three medals as well as the men’s team going for gold and Reo Wilde going for individual gold.

Previous Archery World Cup Coverage:
Medellin Preview
Wednesday Recap
Thursday Recap

Three Americans reached individual finals as the knockout rounds progressed on Thursday at the Archery World Cup in Medellin, Colombia and the US also got a pair into a mixed team final. The US qualified one finalist in each of the individual competitions except for the women’s recurve. There was only one American left, #43 Lauren Clamon and she lost her opening match of the day to #11 Hui Cao of China 7-3.

#2 Brady Ellison is the banner carrier for the US men in the recurve competition after advancing to the gold medal final. Ellison won his first two matches 7-1 before a hotly contested quarterfinal matchup with fellow American #7 Jake Kaminski. Ellison won 6-4 to set up a big time showdown in the semifinals with #3 Bonchan Ku of Korea. The matchup was as tight as expected with Ellison needing a tiebreaker upset to defeat Ku 6-5. Ellison will face #9 Miguel Alvarino Garcia of Spain in the final on Sunday. #29 Colin Klimitchek advanced twice on 6-2 wins, including one over #4 Seungyun Lee of Korea, before being eliminated by #5 Hideki Kikuchi of Japan 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

Ellison and Erin Mickelberry needed a tiebreaker to advance 5-4 in the first round over Cuba and were shutout 6-0 by #1 seed Korea in the quarterfinals of the mixed recurve event. Things went a little better in the mixed compound competition where the #1 seeded pair of Crystal Gauvin and Alex Wifler won 155-150 to reach the semifinals where they nearly took out the #4 Italian team but were defeated on a tiebreaker after scoring 154-154. They will face #7 France for Bronze on Saturday.

Gauvin will be busy on Saturday as she’ll also be competing for the gold in the individual compound final. #2 Gauvin wasn’t pushed until the quarterfinals where she pulled out a 140-138 win over #10 Alejandra Usquiano of Colombia. It was even tighter when she faced #3 Sarah Sonnichsen of Denmark in the semifinals but she posted the highest score by anyone in the knockout rounds and reached the final after a narrow 147-146 win. Gauvin took out fellow American Emily Bee in the second round 145-141 while in opening round matches Dhalia Crook lost to Irene Franchini of Italy 142-140 and Lexi Keller lost to #8 Toja Cerne of Slovenia 144-141. Gauvin’s opponent in the final will be #1 Sara Lopez of Colombia.

On the men’s side it was a change of fortune from the qualifying as lowest seeded American, but #18 overall, Reo Wilde went on a run to the gold medal final. Wilde pulled upsets by seed in every round to reach the final. In the round of 16 that was a tiebreak winning 147-147 match against #2 Stephan Hansen of Denmark. The exact same thing with the exact same score happened in the quarterfinals, but this time the victim was #7 seed and fellow American Steve Anderson. In the semifinals Wilde rose up to a 148 and won 148-147 over #3 Mike Schloesser of the Netherlands. The top American qualifiers had some disappointment in their matches. #6 Braden Gellenthien suffered an upset when he lost 146-145 to Delobelle Fabien of France and #1 Wifler was knocked out in the round of 16 by #16 Sergio Pagni of Italy on a tiebreaker after a 148-148 match. Pagni will face Wilde in the final.

Friday is the last day of non-finals as the men’s and women’s team events narrow down to the finalists.

Previous Archery World Cup Coverage:
Medellin Preview
Wednesday Recap

Competition was narrowed to the top 32 in the individual events on Wednesday at the Archery World Cup event in Medellin, Colombia and for most of the Americans that wasn’t a problem. The US saw 12 of their 16 archers advance to the next day of competition with the women’s recurve athletes comprising three of the four who were knocked out. Only one of the four qualified in a top 32 position, Erin Mickelberry in 27th with a 632. Mickelberry didn’t advance though as she was blanked 6-0 by Mayra Mendez of Venezuela. Allison Eaton, seeded 45th, was also shutout 6-0 by Le Chien-Yeng of Chinese Taipei. Anna Miscione was seeded 44th and was also knocked out, though she got on the board in a 7-3 loss to Karina Winter of Germany. The only US woman to advance was #43 Lauren Clamon after she won a tiebreaker to defeat Elizabeth Rodriguez of Cuba 6-5. Mickelberry, Clamon, and Miscione will compete for the US in the team competition on Friday after qualifying in tenth.

The other American eliminated on day one was in the recurve men’s competition. The US archers qualified well, all four in the top 29, though Brady Ellison, second with a 687, and Jake Kaminski, seventh with a 674, were the best of the bunch. Both of them earned byes to Thursday’s round of 32. Also advancing to the round of 32 was Colin Klimitchek who won two matches from the #29 spot defeating Pablo Jordan of Bolivia 7-3 and Jose Alvarez of Ecuador 6-2. #26 Jacob Wukie had a first round bye but then dropped his opening match 6-2 to Felipe Perez Alvarez of Chile. Ellison, Kaminski, and Wukie earned the #2 seed for the men’s team competition and Ellison will pair with Mickelberry in the mixed competition where they are seeded eighth.

All of the US compound archers advanced on a strong day, though to be fair none of them won a knockout match. There were only 31 women’s compound competitors so there was no elimination rounds on Wednesday in that event. Crystal Gauvin continued her strong form from Shanghai as she was the second best qualifier after shooting a 698 and the only American in the top 15. Gauvin will join Emily Bee and Dhalia Crook in the team event where the Americans are seeded third of the four teams competing.

On the men’s side Steve Anderson was the top American in Shanghai but only the third best American in qualifying despite finishing seventh with a 705. Alex Wifler was best in qualifying with a 710 and Braden Gellenthien was sixth with a 707. Those three unsurprisingly had the top team qualifying score as well. Even Reo Wilde in 18th with a 696 had a strong qualifying shoot as all four Americans grabbed byes to the round of 32. Wifler and Gauvin will compete in the mixed team event after posting the top qualifying score.

Thursday the individual knockout rounds continue and narrow the fields down to the gold medal finalists and the bronze medal finalists. There will also be knockout rounds in the mixed team competitions to set up the finals in those events.

Previous Archery World Cup Coverage:
Medellin Preview

The archery world descends on Medellin, Colombia this week for the second Archery World Cup event of the year. In the first event in Shanghai US athletes grabbed one individual and two team medals. The individual medalist, Zach Garrett with a silver in men’s recurve, is not one of nine athletes who will be appearing for the second time this year.  In that group of nine is Steve Anderson, ninth in men’s compound, and Crystal Gauvin, fifth in women’s compound. None of the six athletes other than Garrett who aren’t competing in Medellin after taking part in Shanghai reached the round of 16, though Khatuna Lorig did win a mixed recurve gold in Shanghai. Lorig and her fellow three women’s recurve competitors from Shanghai will all be absent in Medellin as a new group of four competes.

Wednesday will be qualifying for the individual and team competitions in the morning and then the individual competitions will all narrow down to the top 32 via knockout matches in the afternoon.

Previous Archery World Cup Coverage:
Shanghai Recap

The US did grab a gold in Shanghai after all as the mixed team of Brady Ellison and Khatuna Lorig were clear victors in the final against #4 Chinese Taipei by a score of 5-1. For Ellison and Lorig who were both knocked out before the round of 16 in their individual competitions it was a nice way to end the world cup event. Zach Garrett didn’t do quite as well in the men’s recurve final as he lost out to #2 seed Sjef Van Den Berg of the Netherlands 7-3. Still a silver medal for Garrett is the only individual medal won by the US this weekend.

The next Archery World Cup stop will be in Medellin, Colombia May 9th through the 15th.

Previous Archery World Cup Shanghai Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update
Day 3 Update
Day 4 Update

It’s been an up and down few days for the US compound men in Beijing. After qualifying all four of their archers in the top 11 on Wednesday they all failed to reach the quarterfinals in the individual knockout competition on Thursday. Friday brought a chance to rebound in the team competition and Alex Wifler, Steve Anderson, and Reo Wilde were clearly the best team in advancing to the final against the #10 seed Iranians. Unfortunately things continue to flip flop for the US and there was a drop off on Saturday as they shot just 228 in the gold medal final and Iran was able to upset them by scoring a 229.

The US will look to claim gold in two other events on Sunday when Zach Garrett competes in the men’s recurve gold medal final and when Brady Ellison and Khatuna Lorig compete in the mixed team recurve gold medal final.

Previous Archery World Cup Shanghai Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update
Day 3 Update