“The whole Mexican team has had a great year, especially the compound women,” said Stephanie Sarai Salinas during the fourth stage of the 2015 Archery World Cup in Medellin.
Salinas won bronze medals at the first two stages of the year, in Shanghai and Antalya. Teammate Linda Ochoa had silver in Shanghai and a bronze at stage three in Wroclaw – while third team member Ana Cristina Juarez shoots for individual bronze in Medellin.
The trio also made the team bronze medal match at the fourth and last Archery World Cup stage of the season, too.
However, for Linda and Stephanie, Medellin is not the end of the road. Both qualified for the Archery World Cup Final: Ochoa in third, Salinas in fourth.
(As the ranking translates into seeding for the event, the pair won’t meet in matchplay unless it’s in a final!)
While Ochoa already had two prior Archery World Cup Final appearances to her name, for Salinas it’s a first. That it came during the 2015 season, with the event to be held in Mexico, is no coincidence.
“We’ve been waiting the whole year for this,” Stephanie explained. “The fact that the Final is in our country pushes us to better and keep improving to get into the higher ranks.”
Before 2015, 21-year-old Salinas’ international podiums had all come back when she was shooting in the cadet divisions or at university championships.
In Mexico City, she and Ochoa will compete against six more of the very best compound women in the world. The majority of the 2015 Archery World Cup Final roster was decided during the elimination phases in Medellin, though the last few compound spots will be assigned according to tiebreaker procedures after the event.
As host nation, Mexico received an automatic place in each of the competitions at the World Cup Final. However, since each team can only send a maximum of two athletes in each division, that place was forfeited when both Ochoa and Salinas qualified in the rankings.
With no team event in Mexico City, the Medellin bronze medal match will be Juarez, Salinas and Ochoa’s last outing together, as a team, in 2015.
“The individual competition matters just as much as teams,” said Ana Cristina. “But with teams it is important to work together because you can be the best individual archer, but if you cannot work with the team then there will never be a bond.”
“All three of us are great individually as well as in the team but, most importantly, we are always there for each other.”
