Turkey takes emotional junior team gold

“We don’t know how we did this. It’s such a surprise!” Aleyna AKCINAR, Yesim BOSTAN and Begum TOPKARCI were in tears and could barely speak.

After watching the USA set a new world record of 235 on Wednesday, they were extremely nervous. Nimes is their first world championship – and the team’s previous best was 232.

After a tied first half, Turkey grew a one-point lead in the third end. Then the gold came down to the final arrow, and a millimetre.

The Americans’ last arrow was a 9*. TOPKARCI was last up for Turkey: “I was shaking so much as I shot the last arrow.” It scored eight.

Tense seconds as the arrows were checked… but the USA’s 9* wasn’t upgraded, their score fixed at 224. It meant Turkey took the match and gold by a point. Another silver for the States, to go with the gong from Vegas 2012, and Russia won bronze.

The compound junior men’s final was messy. An Italian athlete got yellow carded in the first end, struggled with time and threw down a miss. The resulting deficit was terminal, and the USA boys took gold. Bronze went to Croatia after a shoot-off.

 


The World Archery Indoor Championships are underway in Nimes, France until 2 March 2014. Follow live scores, full results and World Archery’s coverage on Facebook and Twitter.
People
Competitions