Defending World Games Champion Naomi Folkard and 2007 worlds winner Jessica Tomasi survived the eliminations shoot-up to complete the semifinal line-up at the 2017 World Games in Wroclaw, Poland.
Folkard and Tomasi join Lisa Unruh and Laurence Baldauff, who qualified first and second.
“I’m happy with the results because this new system makes it tougher to reach the semis; so when you win all matches, like I did today, it’s pretty satisfying,” said Jessica.
Seeded seventh with 341 points over the marked and unmarked rounds, the two-time World Games medallist had to win three matches in a row to make the semis in Wroclaw. She first beat the host’s Joanna Rzasa, 82-81, then Swede Elin Kattstrom, 83-82, and – finally – Slovenia’s Ana Umer, 79-76.
“Today I tried to focus myself on the things I know how to do very well while shooting and on not thinking too much to release my arrows. There was not anything different,” said Tomasi. “Having six targets, all close to each other, I think was nice and interesting. It really challenges us as archers, too.”
At this World Games field archery competition, recurve archers shot head-to-head matches over a six-targets course in a winner-stays-on format instead of a straight eliminations cut or the four-target course used for finals at World Archery events.
Four-time Olympian Naomi Folkard, who seeded fifth, beat Jindriska Vaneckova from Czech Republic, 94-78, and then defeated teammate Bryony Pitman to get one step closer to defending her title.
“It’s really hard shooting against a teammate because you really want to win but you also want your teammate to shoot well,” said Naomi. “[Against Bryony] I think my arms didn’t listen to my head, so my shots weren’t as good as in the previous match, but I got through – and that’s what matters to me.”
The recurve women’s field archery semifinal matches are scheduled for Tuesday, 25 July at 14:00 local time.
The recurve field archery competition at the Wroclaw 2017 World Games starts on 23 July in Szczytnicki Park.
