Turkish Olympians take bronze in junior mixed team event

Young Turkish Olympians Mete Gazoz and Yasemin Anagoz, both 18 years old, collected recurve junior mixed team bronze at the 2017 World Archery Youth Championships in Rosario, Argentina by beating Ukraine in straight sets.

“I feel okay but not very happy because we came here for the gold medal. At least we’re taking bronze which is better than nothing,” said Anagoz.

Gold at the World Archery Championships in Mexico City, added Gazoz, is the next step.

“Starting here with bronze is good and it helps our confidence towards that bigger dream. I hope we can do it,” he said.

The pair made their Olympic debuts a the Games in Rio, two years after shooting at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing in 2014.

Now an established duo on the international circuit, the pair recently made it to the bronze medal match at the Hyundai Archery World Cup stage in Berlin, eventually finishing fourth to the USA.

“We’re like one soul when we shoot together. We’ve been doing it for about five years so we know each other, we understand each other and that helps a lot,” said Yasemin.

The Turkish pair, seeded sixth in Rosario, beat Poland and Mexico before falling to Russia in the semifinals. Sets of 32, 37 and 33 points was enough to secure victory in the bronze medal match against Ukraine.

Mixed team gold medals will be decided during finals weekend in Rosario.

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France took recurve cadet mixed team bronze, the USA compound cadet mixed team bronze in a shoot-off, and Colombia beat Denmark by 10 points, 155-145, in the compound junior mixed team bronze medal match.

“We’re very happy. From the beginning, we planned to win a medal in the mixed team and we did that. We felt very comfortable against Denmark, as we took the experience from the previous matches. We’re going back home satisfied with what we did,” said Colombian archer Nora Valdez.

The 2017 World Archery Youth Championships run 2 to 10 October in Rosario, Argentina.

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