Denmark’s Stephan Hansen and Sarah Sonnichsen defeated a Mexican pairing of Linda Ochoa-Anderson and Rodolfo Gonzalez to win the 2017 World Games compound mixed team title in Wroclaw, Poland, 156 points to 155.
“Linda kept shooting 10 and we were like ‘don’t shoot that anymore’ because we were getting behind,” said Sarah. “But we also knew that we are very good at keeping going and we decided not to think about it too much because we knew we could come back.”
Both Denmark and Mexico opened with a perfect 40. In the second end, Denmark took a one point lead, before Mexico climbed ahead, by a point, after the third.
In the fourth and final end, Hansen and Sonnichsen landed two perfect X10s, Linda and Rodolfo, 10-9, and then an X10 and an eight. The Danes, a 10 and a nine to win the gold.
“Everybody makes mistakes and it happened to them in the end. Rodolfo didn’t have much time to shoot that last arrow and I was kind of sad for him,” added Sarah.
“It feels good to win and we both, Denmark and Mexico, fought hard for it, but it would have been better if he didn’t have that eight.”
Rodolfo, who finished fourth at the Hyundai Archery World Cup stage in Salt Lake and took silver in the mixed team at that event, with Linda, too, said that figuring out the time is all part of shooting successfully as a pair.
“Time is affected by many things but it’s all part of how we work as a team and sometimes having not too much time helped me to shoot a good shot,” said Rodolfo.
Linda, though, took the blame.
“I think it was my fault,” she said, laughing. “We both keep learning every time how to complement each other while we shoot and today was not the exception. I think it worked well.”
The Mexicans made it to the semis after beating Colombia in a shoot-off.
“Against Colombia our scores weren’t as good as in our final match, but we managed to win the shoot-off,” said Linda. “We said to each other ‘this is one shot, let’s make it our best’. Then we reset.”
Colombia, represented by Camilo Cardona and Sara Lopez, went straight back to the final field to shoot against the pairing of Cassidy Cox and Kris Schaff for the compound mixed team bronze medal.
They started strong but, by the end of the third, the USA was two points up, 114-112. A perfect 40-point end for Schaff and Cox, against Colombia’s 39, was enough to take the match, 154-151.
“In the semis I was having a tough time because the sun was shining down my scope really hard,” said Cassidy. “I know we were all having a hard time, but we fixed it while Colombia was shooting their semis and I was a lot more comfortable shooting the target during the bronze medal match.”
Schaff, who was making his arena debut at an international event, said he felt the pressure.
“In the match I was definitely nervous being the first time I was on a big stage and didn’t shoot great shots. In the second, I felt really good coming out from the little break. Brought my security out and made the shot we needed,” he said.
The compound target archery competitions at the 2017 World Games run 29/30 July in Wroclaw, Poland.
