Croatian archer Amanda Mlinaric beat Sakshi Chaudhary of India, 141-140, to secure back-to-back world champion crowns in the under-21 compound women’s event at the World Archery Youth Championships.
“I was feeling so stressed. It was a really bad match, but I managed to win it in the end,” said an emotional Amanda after the final in Wroclaw.
“All I can say, now I’ve won twice the youth world championships, so I truly feel like the best junior woman in the world.”
The 20-year-old led early in the final before Chaudhary fought back to tie the match after three ends at 84 points apiece.
The Indian archer shot a rough fourth end, hitting three nines, to trail by two heading into the last series. Finishing strong, she pushed back with a 29 in the fifth – but it wasn’t enough against a confident Amanda who, with just a 28, won the match, the gold and her second world title.
“It very meaningful. It’s for my parents, my boyfriend, my grandma, my coach, for everyone actually,” Mlinaric added.
In the bronze medal match, Meeri-Marita Paas defeated Anna Scarbrough by five, 143-138.
The under-21 compound men’s individual world title would be decided in a final between Robin Jaatma of Estonia and Mateo Mangelle of France.
Dominating from start to finish, Jaatma took the victory, 146-144, to secure his second world title in just an hour and a half, having already won the mixed team gold with Paas.
“[World champion] sounds amazing. I’m really happy. I worked really hard for it and it finally paid off,” said Robin.
A pair of 29s put the young Estonian man two points up but Mangelle shot a 30 in the third to draw level.
Jaatma responded, taking absolute control of the match and not putting another arrow out of the middle, eventually landing seven straight 10s to win by two points.
“I think I shot really decent arrows in the third end, and they were little bit out, but I thought, ‘keep going, make good shots and hope they’ll fall’,” said Robin.
The bronze medal match saw a fantastic tussle between Mexico’s Sebastian Garcia and Indian archer Rishab Yadav.
Garcia opened the match with a perfect arrow, taking out the X in the very centre of the target, set 50 metres downrange. Clean through five arrows, Garcia couldn’t maintain the pace, while Yadav only got stronger, eventually taking bronze, 146-145.
Robin Jaatma and Meeri-Marita Paas’s mixed team victory saw them defeat Dafne Quintero and Sebastian Garcia of Mexico, 155-154. Paas delivered the winning 10.
“I feel very confident as an anchor in the team and, of course, shooting together makes you feel powerful,” she said. “It’s kind of the wildest dreams that every archer would want to say that they’re world champion, so totally happy.”
Mexico took both the men’s and women’s team titles.
Sebastian Garcia, Rodrigo Olvera and Luis Lezama shot three perfect 10s in their last rotation and waited patiently for their one-point win over Turkey to be confirmed at the target before celebrating.
“We’re very happy, it’s the result we were expecting. There’s chemistry, there’s quality in this team and I think we work for this and we did it really well,” said Olvera.
The boys’ Mexican teammates Dafne Quintero, Mariana Bernal and Asstrid Alanis had a similar victory over Russia.
Coming from behind, the trio delivered a last end of 58 points, beating Russia’s closing 55, to jump ahead and snatch the win, and the world title, 227-226.
Competition concludes in Wroclaw with recurve finals on Sunday.
Compound under-21 world titles
- Men: Robin Jaatma, Estonia
- Women: Amanda Mlinaric, Croatia
- Men team: Mexico
- Women team: Mexico
- Mixed team: Estonia
