Croatia claim three world field junior titles at Zagreb 2014

Individual junior finals were live on Archery TV and now available on demand. Recap the winners:

1) Barebow junior women:

Italian Anna CARRASCO beat Great Britain’s Sophie BENTON on a shoot-off to claim gold. CARRASCO was shocked: “I was ranked third during eliminations. I wasn’t expecting gold.”

Bronze went to Elodie DONVAL (FRA) at her world field championships debut.

2) Barebow junior men:

Alessio NOCETI (ITA) upset Craig MCCREERY (GBR) – who shot the second best score during individual eliminations – to pick gold, 51-43. In the first target, MCCREERY missed one arrow handing NOCETI the lead from the beginning. That nine-point difference decided the match.

It was the reverse of yesterday’s junior men’s team gold medal match, when Craig won gold and Alessio silver.

Mike CLEVEN (NED) beat Johan PRIKLONSKY (SWE) to bronze.

3) Recurve junior women:

States archers Karissa YAMAGUCHI and Miriam TRAFFORD shot against each other for gold. TRAFFORD secured the podium top spot 44-41. BALDELLI Laura (ITA) beat Polish Maria CHROSTOWSKA to bronze.

4) Recurve junior men:

Croatian Matija MIHALIC claimed his first world field title at home over Nathan YAMAGUCHI (USA) by a six-point margin.

Czech’s Jan ZAPLETAL beat Collin KLIMITCHEK (USA) – who won bronze with the men’s team – to bronze by two-point difference.

5) Compound junior women:

Croatian and Val d’Isere silver medallist Maja ORLIC shot a three perfect 6s on the second target to lead until the end of the gold medal match. She beat Runa GRYDELAND (NOR) – who won bronze in Val d’Isere.

A surprised ORLIC was already looking forward to defending her newly-won crown: “It’s amazing it all happen at home. I hope I can be at the next worlds to make it happen again!”

Wuxi outdoor bronze medallist from Great Britain, Rebecca LENNON beat her teammate Daisy CLARK 61-58 to bronze.

6) Compound junior men:

The Croatian home crowd wasn’t shy about supporting its favourites during one of the most anticipated gold medal matches of the day.

Mario VAVRO, one of the more recognisable finalists thanks to his crazy dreadlocks, beat Jordan MITCHELL (GBR) to claim gold. “Everything went better than expected. I was psyched to take it at home,” a thrilled VAVRO said.

Both VAVRO and MITCHELL shot in the finals at the last youth worlds. Mario won cadet bronze, while Jordan’s team missed out on the podium thanks to a yellow-card mishap in the last end.

His teammate and reigning champ Domagoj BUDEN – who came to the event expecting a world title – picked up the bronze instead, by beating Renaud DOMANSKI.

“I was expecting gold but bronze is alright. I got nervous in front the home crowd. They were all cheering for me – and expeced me to win,” BUDEN added.

Watch the senior individual finals live from the Zagreb 2014 World Archery Field Championships this afternoon on Archery TV.

Watch senior individual finals live from the Zagreb 2014 World Archery Field Championships on Archery TV. Follow live results and see news, World Archery’s coverage on Facebook and @worldarchery on Twitter.