Lopez wins 3 of 3 Medellin gold medal finals

Sara Lopez collected three gold medals at the second 2016 Hyundai Archery World Cup stage on home soil, in Medellin, Colombia, in the individual, team and mixed team competitions.

Her first win came with teammates Aura Maria Bravo and Alejandra Usquiano, when the trio beat the USA by seven points, a comfortable margin, in the compound women’s team final. Lopez then paired up with Daniel Munoz to take mixed team gold over Italy by a point. The Colombians only dropped three points in 16 arrows.

“I think that was probably the tightest match Sara and I have ever shot,” said Munoz.

It might have been Sara’s tightest – until she stepped out for the third of three gold medal matches at Medellin 2016.

Lining up opposite Crystal Gauvin from the USA in a final the pair had predicted at the end of the previous stop on the international tour in Shanghai. Lopez took gold at that event, just as she did at the Archery World Cup Final in Mexico City at the end of 2015 (and the year before that, too).

Lopez started the Medellin final with a perfect 30. Gauvin a 29.

Sara was perfect for another three arrows – and Crystal joined her in the 10-ring, not missing either.

The tension, as Lopez put 10 after 10 down, was palpable – and when her eight shot landed nine, it cracked. But Gauvin put a nine in, too – and the home favourite kept her one-point advantage, for another two arrows, at least.

In the fourth, Crystal caught up, shooting perfect while Lopez dropped another; the two tied at 118 each.

Lopez looked more nervous on the line, and looked up to the sky as her opponent put an arrow into the nine after she had done the same with two of hers, offering the 21-year-old Colombian the chance to stay alive in the last end – but Gauvin still had the chance to win it with her last shot.

“I just couldn’t get that arrow off,” said Gauvin afterwards. “I’ve never had that happen before. I usually shoot a really quick shot. I just kept pulling and pulling and it was not getting off.”

It went wide, nine, and the two went to a shoot-off, equal after regulation at 146.

In the tiebreaker, Sara shot first…

…she took her time, and shot an excellent 10.

Gauvin drew up second, needing an almost-perfect arrow to take the match. Her arrow landed 10, but not quite as close to the middle as Sara’s.

It meant a third gold in Medellin, and a third individual gold medal in a row in Hyundai Archery World Cup competition for Sara. She also collected the Longines stage Prize for Precision on a tiebreaker with her finals opponent, 106 to 105 X10s.

“Crystal is one of my best friends in archery,” she said. “I know she shoots good, and she knows how I shoot, so I knew she was going to stay strong until the end.”

“It was a very close match, one of the best I have ever shot.”

Lopez is now unbeaten in matchplay outdoors since the bronze medal match she took at the World Archery Championships in Copenhagen in 2015. Gauvin was, in fact, the last person to knock the world number one out, in the semifinals of that competition.

“That’s probably the most fun I’ve ever had in a match,” said Gauvin of the pair’s Medellin clash. “To go toe to toe with her was awesome. I can’t wait for our next match together.”

Marcella Tonioli won compound women’s bronze, 143-142, over Sarah Sonnichsen.