Natalia Avdeeva wins compound gold at Yankton 2018

Natalia Avdeeva scored 145 out of a possible 150 points to beat Turkish compound woman Yesim Bostan’s 141, to take her first-ever individual world title at the 2018 World Archery Indoor Championships held at the NFAA Easton Archery Centre in Yankton, USA.

“It’s strange! I want to cry, jump, run around the world… Tomorrow I will know what I’m feeling,” said Natalia, emotional after receiving her gold medal.

The Russian athlete opened the match with a perfect 30 points to take a two-point lead over Bostan. Despite landing a 28 and a 27 in the second and third ends, Avdeeva finished strong with a pair of 10s to finish four points up on Bostan, who scored four 28s and a 29.

“When I shot the three 10s in the first end, I thought ‘maybe this is the first time I get to shoot 150’, but no, I had a 27 and a 28 afterwards. I didn’t know what to do, but my teammate encouraged me to shoot in the middle, I shot in the middle and it was wonderful.”

Canada’s Dawn Groszko faced world number one Sarah Sonnichsen for the compound women bronze medal match.

Starting two points behind, 27-29, Dawn cut one point in the fourth end, to set the match at 113 to 114, in Sarah’s favour.

Sonnichsen, with her last three arrows, scored three nines; Dawn: two 10s and a nine, winning the match by one point, 142-141.

“It’s absolutely amazing. I came in with a dream and had no expectations but everything fell into place. My qualification round wasn’t at all the best I ever shot, so I thought that it was going to be a bad tournament,” said the 50-year-old Dawn, who also claimed bronze with Canada’s women’s team.

“Before I came to do my [bronze medal] match, they announced Sarah was world number one and that’s only when I realised it. I relaxed a little bit but I did get nervous when I was shooting and I was amazed that the arrow even get to the target sometimes.”

The 2018 World Archery Indoor Championships took place in Yankton, USA on 14-19 February.