US compound pair secures 1st medal of the season at last stage

The USA will face Denmark for the compound mixed team gold medal on Saturday at the fourth and last stage of the 2018 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Berlin, Germany. It’s the first compound pairs final of the year for the US.

Fourth seeded after qualifying, Kris Schaff and Paige Pearce Gore defeated number eight India, 155-154, in the semifinals. ​Abhishek Verma and Jyothi Surekha Vennam had upset the top seeds from the Netherlands in the previous round.

“There were a couple of errors where we were caught at full draw with a little bit of wind, and when the scores are so high that makes a huge difference,” said Paige.

On Saturday in the finals arena, Pearce Gore will defend a medal and title she won with Braden Gellenthien in Berlin last year.

“It’s feels good to be in the gold where, if you do lose, second is the worst that you can get,” said Kris.

The US archer expects their opponents in the final, Stephan Hansen and Tanja Jensen, to come out and shoot as well as they did in the eliminations.

“Stephan is number one in the world for a reason,” said Schaff.

Seeded third in Berlin, the Danish duo defeated Turkey, 155-153, in the second semifinal.

Yesim Bostan and Demir Elmaagacli tied the world record for the compound mixed team match with a perfect score – 160/8X – in their first match of the day. They then scored 158 to defeat Germany in the quarterfinals, but could not stand up to that level in the last round of the day.

Yesim Bostan will be in the three bronze medal finals - individual, team and mixed team - on compound Saturday in Berlin.

The fourth stage of the 2018 Hyundai Archery World Cup takes place in Berlin, Germany on 16 to 22 July.