Tiebreakers decide finals fates for Nimes #1 recurve seeds

Korean archer Park Sehui shot a new recurve women’s world record – 594 out of 600 – during qualifying. Brady Ellison, the only archer to have won the outdoor Archery World Cup three times, posted 595 for a commanding pole position.

Both made it through to their final fours, and both found themselves trailing in the semifinals. One made it through, one did not.

Brady, who shot for bronze in France in 2015, didn’t drop a single arrow out of the 10-ring during his second round and quarterfinal matches. His draw in the final four was Italian Luca Moletto.

“It’s my first time as a senior in Nimes and the second time I’ve shot against Brady. The last was at the Arizona Cup in 2014,” said Moletto. “And it was my day.”

The Italian lost their match-up in ’14 in a shoot-off. He won his semifinal in Nimes the same way.

After recovering a 3-1 deficit to a 5-5 draw, Brady shot his one arrow in the tiebreaker first – and it landed good 10. Luca pulled out a near-perfect one: “It was a long shot, but it got there and I’m there.”

He advances to face Russia’s Alexander Kozhin for gold, while Brady and Dutchman Rick van den Oever clash in the Nimes 2016 beonze medal match.

Top women’s seed Park Sehui faced a 5-1 hole in her match against Elena Tonetta, also from Italy. The Korean athlete had put in a 27-point set in the third that put the match all but out of reach.

Tonetta dropped a pair of 28s to close, though, and Park took advantage.

She closed regulation with five of her six arrows in the 10 for sets of 30 and 29 and the full four set points she needed to force a draw. In the tiebreaker, she shot fast and a tight arrow in the middle, while Tonetta, who’d been waiting until there was just 50 seconds left on the clock before shooting an arrow during the tournament, watched.

Alone on the line, Tonetta drew, aimed and loosed her arrow – wide left and into the nine.

Park faces another Italian team member, Guendalina Sartori, in the gold final, while Tonetta has Tatiana Biltrikova in the bronze.

The gold and bronze medal matches at the third stage of the Indoor Archery World Cup are being broadcast live on Archery TV on Sunday 17 January 2016.

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