States put 3 into individual gold finals in Medellin

The second of three stops – excluding the final – on the 2016 Hyundai Archery World Cup tour, Medellin saw the USA field a full team and a full slate of incredible match-ups during the indvidual elimination phases of the tournament.

Collin Klimitchek orchestrated one of the more impressive performances of the morning.

He shot four perfect sets, 12 10s in a row, to defeat Lee Seungyun, the 2013 World Archery Champion from Korea, in the recurve men’s third round. Lee only dropped three points over the entire match himself, but it wasn’t enough.

Klimitchek was, quite rightly, heard describing it as: “The best match I’ve ever shot”.

The 19-year-old’s tournament was ultimately cut short in the quarterfinals by Hideki Kikuchi, in five sets – but while Collin didn’t make the individual finals, three of his States teammates did…

1. Reo Wilde 

“I tried some stuff during qualification and it didn’t work so well,” said Reo, who seeded 18th. “It kind of bummed me out because I always like being on the team, and I was the fourth man. I went back to the practice range as soon as we were done, undid everything, and it worked good.”

The lowest position Reo has ever finished indvidually in Medellin is third. He’ll come away with at least a second place in 2016, after he takes on two-time compound men’s circuit winner Sergio Pagni for gold.

His path through the brackets wasn’t easy. Reo took on World Archery Champion Stephan Hansen in the fourth round then teammate Steve Anderson in the quarters. Both matches went to shoot-offs, both matches Reo won – and with his tiebreaker arrows shot in the X10-ring.

Reo then edged Mister Perfect Mike Schloesser in the semifinals, 148-144.

2. Crystal Gauvin 

Second-seeded compound woman Crystal Gauvin shot 15-arrow matches of 145 and twice 147 in her four elimination matches in Medellin. She did have one almost-scare, in the quarters, when she posted a 140. Fortunately for Crystal, her Colombian opponent, Alejandra Usquiano, also put down her lowest total of the matchplay – 138 – and Gauvin advanced.

“I had just come off having to shoot against my teammate, which never is fun. My head just wasn’t in it. I just sprayed the target, had a seven,” explained Gauvin. “But I made it through and I’m into the gold medal against Sara [Lopez], just as we predicted.”

Since Crystal successfully predicted the Medellin final, we had to ask for her prediction for the outcome of said match…

“Well, I gotta go with myself, right?”

3. Brady Ellison 

Colombian Andres Pila, Mauro Nespoli and then USA teammate Jake Kaminski all consecutively fell to Ellison as he advanced through the phases and the field in Medellin. His fourth match of the competition, in the semifinals, was moved to the show target on the far right of the field.

He’d take on Ku Bonchan, the last Korean left alive.

“I knew it was going to be a good match. He’s been shooting good, I’ve been shooting good, and we were toe-and-toe the whole match,” said Brady.

Within three sets, Brady was 5-1 up, but they were tight set victories. A single point in the first and third series had made the difference. Ku Bonchan posted three 10s in the fourth, another set taken by a point, to extend the match – then shot 9-10-10 to Brady’s 8-10-10 to send it to a tiebreaker.

“We both made a somewhat bad shot on the last one, and mine just happened to be closer. We were talking on the way down and we were both a little shaky. I was a nine just out and he was an eight. I’m happy that mine hit a little better than his and, finally in a gold medal match, it feels good,” explained Brady.

“I’ve been shooting good this outdoor season. I shot great in China and, even though I got knocked out in my first match, I felt good.”

In the five days since Shanghai, where he shot a competition personal best during qualification, the 27-year-old said he’d been working on consolidating the form he’d found during the first stage. Despite starting slow in the Medellin ranking round, Brady said, he was able to shoot well when he needed to.

The three-time Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion will face the winner of the tour in 2015, Miguel Alvarino Garcia, in the final in Medellin. Miguel knocked out top seed Kim Woojin.

“I really don’t care about the opponent,” said Brady. “I know what I need to do to walk away happy from a match. I need to go in there and make my shots and do what I do. If it’s good enough to win, it’ll be good enough to win. Really, everything’s in preparation for Rio.”