Colombian archers won three of the four individual titles, with only Puerto Rican recurver Adrian Munoz preventing the clean sweep, at this week’s world ranking event in Medellin.
The individual medals were decided this afternoon on Sunday, November 7, following the awarding of quota places for the Birmingham 2022 World Games in the morning.
Those spots were won by compound archers from the USA, El Salvador, Colombia and Puerto Rico.
Daniel Munoz both secured the Colombian men’s tickets for the World Games in the morning, by finishing third, and took individual gold in the ranking event later in the afternoon after beating El Salvador’s Douglas Nolasco.
“I’m extremely happy to win the gold medal in the World Ranking event, I had already won my place for the World Games in the morning, which was the most important thing of the day. I had to close the day with the gold medal in the Ranking. I’m very happy, very happy, to achieve this result,” said Muñoz.
Both women’s finals in the ranking event saw two archers from Colombia take to the field.
Alejandra Usquiano upset reigning World Archery Champion Sara Lopez in the compound women’s gold medal match, shooting an impressive 149-point 15-arrow match as Lopez faltered.
Newcomer Allyx Zuluaga upset the experienced Ana Maria Rendon in the recurve women’s title contest, finishing with a pair of 28s to seal the result.
Adrian Munoz had qualified top in the recurve men’s event earlier in the competition week, scoring 673 during qualifying. He entered the arena to face Santiago Arcila for gold – with a chance of becoming the only number one seed in Medellin to convert a strong qualification into a leading result.
Munoz was good in the final, only surrendering set points when his opponent delivered a 30. Ultimately, consistency won the day – and Adrian took the match, 6-2.
“I feel extremely happy, I worked for this and continue to do so, to be able to grow in this sport. There’s many big competitors here in Colombia and honestly I am very proud,” he said.
This world ranking event in Medellin was the last major event of the year for archers in the Americas before the first Junior Pan American Games take place in Cali later this month.
Major events resume in 2022 – and it was recently revealed that Medellin is to return as a host of the Hyundai Archery World Cup next season, too.