Britain’s para team collects 4 golds at Rio warm-up
Images courtesy WRT2016/Facebook and USA Archery.
The Brits collected a total of six medals at the Czech Target Para Archery World Ranking Event, four gold and two bronze, topping the medal ranking ahead of Russia and Italy.
Michael Hall, John Stubbs and Nathan MacQueen won the compound men's open team event in a shoot-off against Italy. At 224-all, the British trio landed a 28 to beat Italy's 27 and claim gold.
Russia beat Turkey by three points, 226-223, for bronze in the category.
Two-time European Champion in the new women's W1 category, Jo Frith, continued to build on her new W1 matchplay world record set during Great Britain's Paralympic Selection Shoot earlier in the month. Paired with John Walker in the W1 mixed team in Nove Mesto, she collected another gold for the nation as they defeated the host country by a huge 20-point margin 144-124.
Bronze went to Spain after they racked up an easy win, 132-124, over France.
Frith had a shot at another medal in an all-British battle for women's W1 individual bronze. She scored 132 to take bronze ahead of teammate Vicky Jenkins with a 126. The third British competitor in the category, Jessica Stretton took a comfortable win for the gold medal, shooting 132 to Korea's Kim Ok Geum's score of 124.
John Walker picked up another gold in the men's W1 category, after the mixed team, overcoming top seed Naci Yenier of Turkey 132-126 in the final.
John Stubbs also added a second medal to his Nove Mesto collection when he picked up the compound mixed team bronze alongside Jodie Grinham, as they took a 146-144 victory over Sweden.
Contested by first and second seeds Italy and Russia, the gold medal eventually went to European Champion Alberto Simonelli – already the winner in the compound men's open individual event – paired with World Champion Eleonora Sarti.
The 30-year old Italian beat the compound women’s ranking round world record earlier this month at the Italian National Para Archery Championships.
Other notable results included World Champion Eric Bennett winning recurve men's open team bronze alongside Timothy Palumbo and Michael Lukow, in addition to individual gold. His performance at Nove Mesto locked up his slot for the 2016 USA Paralympic Archery Team and his third consecutive Games.
Second seed after individual qualification, Bennett trailed 2-4 against Sergey Khutakov in the gold medal match, but managed to shoot two 27-point series to take the fourth and fifth sets and clinch victory.
Recurve women's gold medal went to top seed Milena Olszewska, who beat Elisabetta Mijno in straight sets. Zehra Ozbey Torun went home with individual bronze, after a 7-3 win over second seed Margarita Sidorenko.
