Beijing Olympian wins world compound gold

To audacious cheers from the upwards of 2000-strong crowd, France’s Sophie DODEMONT won compound women’s gold at Nimes 2014.

The 2008 Beijing Olympic team bronze medallist had a bad first set, by her own admission, against Christie COLIN (USA). It prompted her to focus, and she launched a determined recovery to win 6-4.

“To be honest, I wasn’t aware what was going on at all,” said DODEMONT. “I had no idea what she was doing… I was just so focused on my shots.”

“I am very, very moved. I was counting more on the team gold – but instead it’s the individual!”

Members of Sophie’s club turned out in force, wearing bespoke tops and badges, sporting cheeks painted with the French flag, and making a whole lot of noise as encouragement.

While crediting the medal to her love of archery, DODEMONT praised her employer – the French police force – for letting her work just 30 percent and train the rest of the time. Earlier in the week, we profiled the former Olympian.

DODEMONT’s French teammate Pascale LEBECQUE won bronze. Coincidentally, she also arrived at France’s national training centre as a recurve archer before making a very successful switch to compound.

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.