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French cadets take championships – Bariteaud and Lopez win worlds

15 August 2021

Wroclaw, Poland

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Iban Bariteaud and Caroline Lopez of France beat Denmark’s Ludvig Henriksen and Turkey’s Ceren Kocur in their respective gold medal matches to be crowned the new recurve under-18 world champions in Wroclaw, Poland.

"It’s been a dream since I was a child and my dream has finally come true. I haven’t realised it yet but I want to celebrate with everyone,” said Iban.

Caroline said the title was “incredible”.

“It’s a perfect shoot today. I shot as usual, and the technique followed, and it paid off,” said Caroline.

In the boys’ final against Henriksen, Bariteaud won both opening sets to open a comfortable lead.

He had opportunities to finish the match in the third – and then the fourth, but couldn’t deliver quite what was necessary, taking only one of the four available set points.

"On each of my last arrows I was so nervous. I should have ended it in the third set, but what really matters is that I won at the end,” he said. Iban took advantage of a six from his opponent in the fifth to finally close out the win.

“I might be young but there’s been a lot of hard work over the past few years. I hope what’s coming next will be even better,” he said.

India’s Bishal Chagmai took a five-set win over Dauletkeldi Zhangbyrbay of Kazakhstan to secure the last spot on the podium.

Caroline Lopez’s final also went the full five sets.

She was behind, 4-2, after three sets – and Ceren Kocur looked like she would cruise to victory. But something switched in Caroline’s demeanour and the groups on the target tightening.

She shot a perfect 30 in the fourth to set up a fifth-set decider.

Shooting first, the top seed opened with a pair of nines, both matched by Kocur. With her third and last arrow, she delivered a winning 10.

The same from Ceren would force a tiebreak – but her last shot was an eight.

Lopez celebrated.

“I had a bit of stress as you’ll never know what the opponent might shoot after, so yes a bit of stress on the last arrow,” said Caroline.

India, represented by Manjiri Manoj Alone, secured bronze over the Netherland’s Quinty Roeffen in another thriller, 6-4.

The individual win was Caroline’s second gold medal of the morning.

She also led Amelie Cordeau and Victoria Sebastian in a final defeat of Ukraine, 5-1, to secure the under-18 recurve women’s team world title.

India beat the French men, though, in the second team final.

Amit Kumar, Bishal Changmai and Vickey Ruhal made the difference early, starting fast and building a four-set-point. The French team recovered but a split fourth set gave the gold medal to India.

“We are very happy. It’s our independence day today and we’re happy that our flag will rise on the top with our national anthem,” said Changmai, whose third medal at these championships came in the mixed event.

He and Tamnna comfortably beat an unsettled Japan, 6-2, to gold.

Competition concludes in Wroclaw with the under-21 recurve finals on Sunday afternoon.