TERNI, IT – Following a day of rest on Wednesday, some Canadian archers are back on the archery range for the elimination rounds. The day started off with the traditional and longbow competitors. 

The first two archers on the docket today were Miranda Sparkes and Marc Britton. Sparkes, a longbow archer, competed against Irena Mavric Plesko of Slovenia in her first match, unfortunately dropping it with a score of 28-23. Britton shoots with a traditional bow, and he was up against Norwegian Ola Klaapbakken, who won the match with a score of 56-45. Neither Canadian will advance in the event.

After the delay, Trudy Dryden was able to take the field in the traditional bow competition. She was up against Daniela Marsetti (ITA) in her first match, and she came out on top with a score of 61-44. Moving on to face 4th-ranked Jarmila Korabecna from the Czech Republic, she was able to win again with a score of 50-44. As the winner of pool C, she was then slated to face off against Austrian Irene Nöbauer. Unfortunately, she was not able to secure the win and advance, losing with a score of 51-57. 

“The day started early with 5:30 breakfast and the bus picked us up at 6:30,” Rene Schaub described. “After our 1 hour bus ride, we arrived in time for 8:00 practice for longbow and traditional archers. As the individual matches got going, the weather started to turn to light and then heavier rain. Unfortunately, Miranda and Mark had started their matches. The rain soaked them head to toe and made it very hard to shoot. By the end of the match, they both lost. By the time the round was over, the lightning had moved in close. The matches were then canceled for almost an hour. Trudy did very well, but finally lost in the quarterfinals.”

Following the midday break for lunch, the compound and barebow archers were able to take their shot at winning some elimination rounds. 

Jovica Djukic then shot an incredibly close first elimination round against Matteo Seghetta, who was shooting in his home country of Italy. Djukic was close but unable to pull out the win with a score of 45-47.  

Three Canadian compound women shot in the first round. April Willis was shooting against Lea Jarrett (USA) in the opening elimination, and unfortunately was not able to pull the win (44-59). Andrea Wiens was also unable to advance past her first opponent Alba María Guerrero Sanchez from Spain, who won the match 60-55. Monica Higgins won her first match against Brenda Gonzalez (MEX) with a score of 61-55. She was then able to win the next match in a close score of 60-58, against Heli Raunio of Finland. Her subsequent match against American Gracelyn Chambers was also a success; the archers were tied for many of the ends, with Higgins being able to pull away in the final end, not shooting an arrow under 10. Higgins then continued her winning streak against Kirstine Godskesen Klausen of Denmark, who was ranked 5th after qualifications. The Canadian compound archer came away with a decisive score of 58-51, which named her the winner of Pool B. While Higgins was supposed to go on and shoot in the quarterfinal match against the Pool C winner, the weather did not produce safe shooting conditions so the match was postponed until Friday, September 9. 

William “Alex” Melnik, the third-ranked barebow archer in the competition, was able to pull out a win in his first match against Fredrik Lundmark from Sweden, taking the match with a score of 63-61. This made him the winner of Pool A and moved on to face the winner of Pool D, Spaniard Cesar Vera Bringas. In a match that resulted in a tiebreaker, Melnik and Vera Bringas both shot 8s, but the Canadian’s was closer to the middle, meaning he moved on to shoot in the semifinals against Italian Giuseppe Seimandi on Saturday, September 10. 

“Most of our compound shooters lost, except for Monica, who kept winning match after match,” continues Schaub. “Alex, who had come in 3rd position in the qualifiers, shot his match and won against a world champion. He then shot to get in the semi finals and after 6 targets were tied. After they shot a tiebreaker, Alex won by 2 cm. He will be shooting the finals on Saturday for medals. Monica started to shoot her quarterfinals and after one target it started raining so hard they had to call it off. The head judge said in 22 years he had never called a match because of rain. The match will be continued tomorrow after the team finals.”

The team finals and the remaining quarter finals will take place tomorrow on Friday, September 9. The competition will then turn to the individual semifinals and medal matches on Saturday, September 10.

Scores: https://info.ianseo.net/?tourid=568

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For more information, please contact:

Zoe Meil, Communications & Safe Sport Coordinator

zmeil@archerycanada.ca

(613) 260-2113 ext. 3