Olympians Brady Ellison and Mackenzie Brown of the USA beat Russia, 5-3, to recurve mixed team gold on home soil at the third stage of the 2018 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Salt Lake City.
The two pairs split the first three sets with scores of 35, 35 and 37 out of the possible 40 points – but the host team won the fourth and last, 37-36, to take the match.
“I think it’s special because we’ve got some guys that are here cheering us on and you can definitely feel the support,” said Brown. “We always have the support no matter where we can compete but I think it’s even more so when we’ve got people in the stand really cheering us on.”
Finishing first in the last set, Brady shot a 10 to close the match and then he and Mackenzie stood by, watching to see if the Russian pair could force a shoot-off.
Baldanov, with the last arrow, needed a 10 – but shot a nine.
“It’s really exciting to see that our score was high enough but we were also prepared for the other outcome of shooting a shoot-off, so I think Russia shot really well today and we just shot that much better,” added Brown.
Brady was optimistic about his and Brown’s future:
“We shoot well together, scores are going up, we are shooting better. Hopefully we can continue this into Berlin and then figure it out how to qualify mixed teams and all that for the Games.”
The mixed team event will make its debut at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020.
Chinese Taipei won the recurve mixed team bronze medal in Salt Lake City, shooting 17 to India’s 16 points in a tiebreaker.
The third stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup takes place in Salt Lake City, USA on 18-24 June.
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