Actualités

“Incredible” Pitman makes three of three finals in Antalya

22 avril 2022

Antalya, Turkey

Vrai nom:

Mete Gazoz, Ryan Tyack, Brady Ellison, Miguel Alvarino Garcia, Charline Schwarz, Laura van der Winkel, Katharina Bauer and Bryony Pitman make up the line-up for the first recurve final fours of the new Hyundai Archery World Cup season, which started this week in Antalya, Turkey.

The all-European recurve women’s individual final fours features four archers all making their debuts in the arena.

“This is easily my best World Cup so far,” said Pitman, an Olympian at Tokyo 2020.

“To come out here and finally show myself and everyone else in competition what I do in practice is amazing. To have the last few months to just focus on archery and see where I was going wrong has really helped to see where I needed improving. I feel incredible right now.”

Bryony overcame a scare against Ukraine's Veronika Marchenko early on, winning a tiebreak, 10-9.

She’ll face Bauer in the second semifinal on Saturday afternoon, the second German archer who will take to the arena after Schwarz, guaranteeing that Germany will have at least one medal in the event. The teammates won all their eliminations matches today without drama, with their respective quarterfinals, against Gabrielle Sasai and Marie Horackova, ending the clearest – both straight-set wins.

It sets up a semifinal for Schwarz, who had anything but an easy last-eight clash against Chinese Taipei’s Kuo Tzu Ying (a tiebreak win, 9-8), against van der Winkel.

One of these four women, who have never medalled individually on the circuit before, will qualify for the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final with victory in Antalya.

The recurve men’s line-up is certainly more experienced, featuring a combined six Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion titles and the reigning Olympic Champion, too.

Recurve men’s world number one Brady Ellison, who’s won the international circuit five times, showed his trademark grit to make it through the brackets despite not being on the stratospheric levels of past years. He finished his eliminations campaign with an impressive dismantling of Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Mauro Nespoli (7-3) in the quarterfinals.

“Experience, willpower. Today, probably mostly god,” said Ellison about what got him through the day today.

“I feel a little emotional about it. I’ve been shooting so bad recently that I thought there was no hope. I got through my matches today. I didn’t shoot anything great, but I didn’t shoot anything bad either. I shot mostly 28s, then a couple of 27s and a few 29s at the right times and in that last end I shot a 30 over his 29.”

“The finals always bring out something special, we’ll see how it goes and I hope I shoot good.”

Ellison will be joined in the arena by Miguel Alvarino Garcia – who won the circuit in 2015 – in the first semifinal. In the second, Ryan Tyack will take on Mete Gazoz, who will be looking to make a mark on home soil.

“It is the first competition in my country since the Olympic Games and being in the top four I’m proud of myself,” said Gazoz who came back strongly after being taken to a tiebreak against Romania's Mario Timpu in his first match of the day. “I want the gold medal because no Turkish [recurve] archer has won in Antalya and I want to be the first and make history.”

Competition in Antalya continues on Saturday 23 April with the compound team and individual medal matches.