US men secure 3rd consecutive field world crown

Dave Cousins, Brady Ellison and John Demmer III beat Italy by a huge 13 points in the gold medal match at the Dublin 2016 World Archery Field Championships to win the USA’s third consecutive gold medal in the men’s team competition.

“We got out there and we started off really good, then we never let up and they gave us some opportunities that we took advantage of,” said defending individual recurve men’s champion Brady Ellison.

An impressive USA squad started with 17s on the first two targets, a medium-length 20cm target and a long 40cm shot, to build an eight-point lead.

The advantage only built through the back two, and the USA won gold with two arrows to spare.

“Between the three of us, I think it was the best any of us had performed all day. And we were kind of building towards that and we discussed it, we knew we were going to need a good match,” said compound archer Dave Cousins.

Teams in field archery consist of one compound, one recurve and one barebow archer of the same gender. It’s unusual, as target archery teams don’t mix bowstyles.

Barebow archer Demmer III said the group saw each other maybe a couple of times each year.

“We get along great. We feed off of each other great, and that’s what made us a good team for the event this year,” he added.

Sweden took men’s bronze ahead of Germany.

Great Britain’s women reclaimed a team title they lost to Austria in 2014. The Brits had won in Val d’Isere in 2012 – and won again in Dublin with a comfortable victory over Sweden. The Swedish team shot two misses in their four targets.

“The first one we don’t know and the second one we don’t know. It’s true, we both were very surprised to see they were a miss. I heard you will hit high if you aim at 50, so I though ok, 48, 49 would be good,” explained Swedish barebow Lina Bjorklund.

Shooting up- or downhill effectively shortens the length of the target in terms of sightmark, due to gravity’s differing effect on arrow flight.

“As a team, we were phenomenal. Today it was hard with the weather but it was outstanding, we did great teamwork and we won,” said Britain’s Tracey Hill. The British team totalled 51 points to Sweden’s 43.

The British barebow archer, Jessica Nilsson, used to shoot for Sweden: “It’s hard to shoot against my old teammates; they are all lovely."

Recurve athlete Amy Oliver added that she thought the finals field was more challenging than previous field archery medal match arenas.

“It’s field and not target archery competition. It’s nice to see some challenging shots,” she said.

Slovenia beat Italy, 59-51, in the women’s team bronze final.

The 2016 World Archery Field Championships run 27 September to 2 October in Dublin, Ireland.