Mexican compound archer Andrea Maya Becerra won the gold medal at the third stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Antalya, Turkey.
After 18 years on the world circuit, this year’s Antalya competition was held at a new venue, the Gloria Sports Complex, with more than 320 athletes competing from June 9 to 14.
Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the USA represented the Americas in this stage.
Becerra faced Sara Lopez of Colombia in the compound women’s final.
The prediction for this match pointed to a very close encounter.
Lopez had previously won the gold medal in the first stage in Puebla, while Becerra settled for the silver medal in the second stage in Shanghai.
Becerra started by shooting a perfect score in the first two ends and built a two-point lead that she maintained until the fourth end.
However, with nerves and a perfect score from Lopez, the score was tied at 146 points at the end of the fifth end.
The match was decided in a shoot-off. A 9 from the Colombian and a 10 from the Mexican sealed the victory for Becerra.
“I was just thinking, ‘One more 10, one more 10—you can do it.’ I was shaking, but I was in the zone,” said Becerra.
With this gold medal, the Mexican archer secured her spot in the World Cup Final, which will take place in Saltillo, Mexico, on September 12–13.
Another standout performance in the compound women’s category came from Savannah O’Donohue of the USA.
The 17-year-old archer, last year’s youth world champion, made it to the medal round in her first World Cup appearance.
She finished in fourth place after losing the bronze medal match by just one point to Arina Cherkezova.
In the compound men’s category, Sebastián García of Mexico won the silver medal.
He faced Mike Schloesser of the Netherlands in the gold medal match and lost by a single point, 148–149.
In the recurve women’s category, another Mexican archer made it to the gold medal match.
Ana Paula Vazquez faced Zhu Jingyi of China in a match that was much closer than many had expected.
The final score, however, was 3-7 in favor of Zhu. This is Vazquez’s first individual medal at the World Cup.
With Becerra’s gold medal, four silver medals—two individual and two team—and two team bronze medals, Mexico finished third in the medal standings in Antalya.
Colombia and USA tied for ninth place with one silver medal each. The United States took silver in the recurve men’s team competition.