Rushing To Get The Final 4: World Games Outrun Lightning Delay
Rushing To Get The Final 4: World Games Outrun Lightning Delay. Lightning delayed the World Games finals for a short time. The tournament resumed two hours later than it had planned with the rapid elimination round still capped off due to some lightning delays.
Before nightfall, the final fours were decided with Abhishek Verma, Jean Philippe Boulch, Miguel Becerra and Christopher Perkins making it to the compound men’s semifinals, and defending champion Sara Lopez, Toja Ellison, Paige Pearce and Ella Gibson booking spots in the arena for the preceding women’s competition.
In a thrilling quarterfinal, top seed and world number one Mike Schloesser shot an amazing 150 and Indian world number five, Verma also shot a perfect game with one nine to tie 149-149 for the match. After five ends of even shots, the match went to a tie break where Schloesser got a second shot and he was closer to the middle.
“You can see that Mike is a great archer. Nobody knew who would win. I just poured myself into this game and shot, said the ninth seed. I haven’t been new at these games in years, with medal experience coming to my aid.”
Compared to other competitors, he has two opportunities to become a part of Indian history and win the country’s first ever archery medal at the World Games. As Jamaican player Irban Ernest Robert Verma waits to take bronze in men’s individual archery competition, Mister Perfect, India’s Saurabh Sharma tries his best for his nation.
The Dutch world number one shooter amazed the crowds by shooting well. It seems like he did his best, but sometimes it isn’t enough for someone to make it though. Abhishek also impressed with his shot today and is probably going to meet him in the finals after winning against Jozef Bosansky in the quarterfinals. A has been paired up against fourth seed Jean-Phillipe Boulch.
In the second semifinal in 50-meter target archery, Mexico’s Miguel Becerra will compete against former World Archery Champion Christopher Perkins of Canada. Despite not competing much in many 50-meter target archery events during the past 10 years since he won the worlds in Turin in 2011, he delivered a promising performance with a third place finish behind Schloesser with 663 points.
Not having many expectations, Perkins shoots the race well in the announced conditions despite the various delays. He is feeling good after returning to his professional 3D world and says he will see tomorrow as a new day.
Another archer who has been focusing on 3D is USA’s Paige Pearce. She managed to shoot a good score, close to her international career-best, in the new, shorter qualifying round with 704 – points which is rather similar to what she scored internationally. After beating Sarah Prieels and US teammate Linda Ochoa-Anderson, she made it into the semi finals where she will face one of the hottest archers in the world right now, Great Britain’s Ella Gibson.
Gibson has won two matches in the Hyundai Archery World Cup, defeating top seed Tanja Gellethien in Antalya and Paris.
Despite going through several ups and downs, the entire tournament, she found her Rhythm in the fourth round using equipment with an angle of 27.3 degrees. The cold weather allowed her to take a break and reset herself without pressure resulting in more time to check her stride.
Whichever teammate wins their semifinal match on Friday will face a tough opponent in the title match, defending World Games Champion (and world number one and World Archery Champion) Sara Lopez from Slovenia faces Toja Ellison in the second semi-final on Saturday in Birmingham.
Lopez is in form today despite having recently competed in the Bolivarian Games, which she had to start over mid-way due her weather complication.
With a competitive mentality, this competitor finished the race in first place. They had heat stroke last week, but were able to overcome those difficulties to still win. She started by focusing on their technique and finishing up the competition to ensure she would finish strong.
Lopez, who was also selected to double with Daniel Munoz of doubles world champion fame, will also shoot in the mixed team final as well as the individual final four. The Colombian pair beat the top-seeded Indian duo of Verma and Jyothi Surekha Vennam. They faced Michel Schloesser and Adrienne Jody Beckers (who defeated Mexico 157-156 in their semifinals).
Sara said the mixed team event remains her priority and she wants to focus on having fun in the semifinals as she will likely face a tough opponent, Toja. Sara knows they’re fighting for first place again so they both want to win.
After a long crisis, Ellison edged past Vennam to get revenge on Lopez in Beijing. I had a tough match today, but I knew Naomi was shooting well, said a delighted Ellison after walking off the field followed by Ty.
Competition continues on Saturday morning with the finals in the compound. Following these two rounds, there will be the mixed team medal matches in the afternoon.
Image: Source link