Crook, 16, focused for World Cup Final debut

Shooting in her debut year on the international senior circuit, Dahlia Crook ranked joint-seventh over the Hyundai Archery World Cup tour – tied with India’s Lily Chanu Paonam – and originally missed out an invitation to the Final on world-ranking tie-break.

On 17 September, it was announced that Dahlia would replace two-time Hyundai Archery Cup Final Champion Sara Lopez in Odense. Lopez withdraw due to personal reasons.

“I feel bad that she’s not able to be here, but I’m really excited just to have the opportunity to be at the Final,” said Dahlia.

“I’ve been watching this event on YouTube for years and it’s so cool to be here just to actually be in the World Cup Final.”

With only one week to get ready – the Finals run 24/25 September – Dahlia drove over her coach Braden Gellenthien’s house to pick up some last-minute advice. Braden was Archery World Cup Champion in 2012 and finished second four times.

“I learned how to train like a compound man,” said Dahlia, laughing. “I went to my coach’s house and we just trained really hard for a couple of days. It was really good to have an in-depth boot camp of training just before hand.”

In Odense, Dahlia will be coached on the field by her dad – a role he has held before and, she said, “works really well”.

Crook’s experience is limited – her lone senior final was at the Antalya stage in 2016 – but she has a veteran’s understanding of what it takes to succeed on the largest annual stage in archery.

“It takes paying attention to your form, keeping concentration on that and not worrying about the score, who’s winning or losing. The person who’s going to win the World Cup Final is going to stay focused,” she said.

Dahlia’s first match in Odense is a quarterfinal against teammate, second seed and two-time Hyundai Archery World Cup finalist, Crystal Gauvin.

The 2016 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final runs 24/25 September in Odense, Denmark.