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French men make third straight final as compound women take bronze

22 June 2022

Paris, France

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The French compound men’s team has secured a third consecutive gold medal match on the Hyundai Archery World Cup circuit, while France’s women and the US men took compound team bronze medals in Paris.

Jean Philippe Boulch, Quentin Baraer and Adrien Gontier finished second at both stages of the circuit so far this season. In Paris, with Nicolas Girard in the line-up instead of Gontier, the team will look to upgrade when they face European Champion Turkey in the finals arena at Chateau de Vincennes on Saturday morning.

“It’s a new team for this event. It felt awesome just to make the final with this group and, in France, of course it’s what we came for. We were just looking for that match,” said Baraer.

“All the team, whole men’s compound, are just super good now in France. We really know now that we can shoot for gold every time. Now, yes, we now want to go to the arena and just prove it.”

Seeded third after qualifying, it looked unlikely that France would make another final ahead of a semifinal against the red-hot USA.

The States had just matched their world record matchplay score of 239 points in a high-scoring quarterfinal against Slovenia.

But after three ends of the semi, France was the team that was still perfect – and owner of a four-point advantage. That lead would decrease by one over the last end but it remained insurmountable.

The French compound men will shoot in a third straight final in 2022.

Jimmy Lutz shot the closest arrow in the bronze medal match tiebreak.

Sophie Dodemont didn’t know the outcome of the women’s bronze final from the shooting end…

…but the team celebrated at the target.

Lola Grandjean, Sophie Dodemont and Sandra Herve collected bronze on home soil.

The USA recovered to beat Denmark in a tiebreak for compound men’s bronze. The two teams tied on 29 points in the shoot-off but Jimmy Lutz’s 10 was closest to the middle.

Moments before, France’s compound women had picked up the first medal of the event.

Sophie Dodemont, Lola Grandjean and Sandra Herve pulled back a two-point deficit at halfway with a perfect 60 in the third end – and then needed to wait until they saw the targets up close to celebrate after the fourth, with so many arrows edging around the lines.

“It’s important because I’ve had a really bad year in my personal life. My shooting wasn’t great and archery is my life,” said Grandjean, who flung her arms into the air and had tears in her eyes.

“Winning a medal with the senior team when you are shooting every day, it’s really important and in the last week… I lost someone. He was like my grandpa and it was so sad and today this medal is just for him, for my teammates and me, but especially for him.”

France eliminated top seeds Korea in the quarterfinals before suffering a semifinal loss to Turkey.

The Turkish compound women secure their second podium on the circuit this season – after the home opener in Antalya – and draw European Champion and the number two seeds this week, Great Britain, in the final.

Competition continues in Paris with recurve qualifying this afternoon.