Roman beats Bayardo to Marrakesh title in tiebreaker

Aida Roman survived a late comeback from one of her Olympic teammates in Rio, Gabriela Bayardo, to win the recurve women’s gold medal match in Marrakesh in a single-arrow shoot-off, at an event that saw Sarah Prieels, Matteo Fissore and Braden Gellenthien also take their first victories of the young indoor season.

“It feels like a familiar match. Two weeks ago we were shooting in a city in Mexico, also shooting indoors, and we’re getting used to shooting against each other,” said Roman.

“This time she wasn’t representing Mexico but I think it’s good that she’s living her life. I’m happy for her.”

Bayardo has been absent from the international circuit since Shanghai, after relocating to the Netherlands, while she serves the year-long hiatus required before she shoots for her new home country. 

(The indoor circuit is not counted in this requirement.)

Trailing 5-1 after Roman started with a pair of perfect 30s, Bayardo closed with two strong sets of 29 points each to force a tiebreaker. She shot a 10 in the shoot-off, but so did Aida – whose arrow was measured closer to the middle of the target.

The compound women’s final in Marrakesh also went to a one-arrow decider.

Sarah Prieels and top-seeded Paige Pearce-Gore both scored 147 points in the 15-arrow match. Prieels put in a 10 with her tiebreak arrow while Pearce-Gore was out in the nine.

Matteo Fissore beat the winner of the event in 2015, Patrick Huston, in four sets (6-2) in the recurve men’s final.

The compound men’s gold medal match saw a coach and student – both from the US – go head-to-head in the arena. 

Jesse Clayton, who was the individual silver medallist at the World Archery Youth Championships in 2017, knocked out top seed Stephan Hansen in the second round with a perfect 150 – but couldn’t best his archery mentor Braden Gellenthien in the final.

Gellenthien, the reigning Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion, cruised to a two-point victory. The pair were neck-and-neck until Clayton dropped three ninths with his 10th, 11th and 12th arrows.

“I’m really proud of Jesse, he shot really well this weekend,“ said Gellenthien. 

“He’s so close to being at the top level. He proved today that maybe he already is. He beat Stephan, he beat Reo [Wilde]. Those guys are amazing shooters. To step on the line and handle himself as he did, I’m really proud of him.”

Siblings Max and Claudia Mandia were the recurve bronze medallists, Mike Schloesser and Tanja Jensen finished third in the compound events.

The second stage of the Indoor Archery World Cup takes place in Bangkok, Thailand at the start of December.

The first stage of the 2017/18 Indoor Archery World Cup took place in Marrakesh, Morocco on 10-12 November 2017.