The World Archery Youth Championships were held in Winnipeg, Canada on August 18-24. The competition started one day later than planned due to the inconveniences caused by an Air Canada strike which forced several teams to use road transportation from cities like Toronto and drive for more than 20 hours. Other teams were, unfortunately, unable to attend.
The Americas were represented by archers from Canada, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, the USA.
The USA and Mexico showed, once again, that they are powerhouses in youth archery. Each of these countries won six medals: four gold and two silver for the USA, while the Mexicans claimed 1 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze.
Savannath O’Donohue was, without a doubt, the best archer in the Championships. She won the individual gold medal in the Compound U18 Women event, beating India’s Prithika Pradeep in the final match 143 to 140.
She was also part of two teams that gave gold medals to the United States as well: the Compound U18 Women and Compound U18 Mixed teams. Great performance from this archer in Winnipeg: three gold medals in the three events she competed in.
The fourth title for the United States went to the Recurve U21 Men team who did better in bad weather to beat the Koreans in the gold match 5 to 1 set points. The American squad was formed by Joshua Baek, Jack Krengel and Christian Stoddard.
The two silver medals for the USA came from the Compound U18 Men team and the Recurve U18 Mixed team who lost their championship matches to India and Korea respectively.
Mexico won five of their six medals in the compound events. The Compound U21 mixed team formed by Adriana Castillo and Jose Angel Cuellar claimed the crown in a heartbreaking shoot-off versus Korea. Both teams shot an X and a 10, but Mexico’s last arrow was the closest to the center.
The two silver medals were achieved in individual events. Olympic Bronze medalist Angela Ruiz was ahead 5 to 1 after three sets in the Recurve U21 Women event. Her Korean opponent, Shin Seobhin, brought the match to a shoot-off in which she outdid the Mexican 10 to 9.
The second silver went to Compound U21 man Lot Maximo Mendez who lost to Germany’s Ruven Fluss 140 to 146.
The three bronze medals came from three teams: Compound U18 women, Compound U21 women, and Compound U18 Mixed.