USA prides itself on being the best says Anderson

Reo Wilde, Steve Anderson and Kris Schaff beat Chinese Taipei in a Salt Lake City semifinal to put the USA compound men’s team into a third consecutive gold medal match on the Hyundai Archery World Cup circuit in 2018.

“Today was a matter of managing big mistakes, don’t let them happen. You’re gonna shoot some nines, you probably gonna shoot some eights and you might even have some arrows that are worse but just limit the ones that are outside the yellow and you’re probably gonna win matches,” said Anderson, the US opener.

“Stay strong in the wind, be patient when you need to and be fast when you need to, that’s how you win in bad conditions.”

At the first two stages of the international tour, the USA faced off with Korea in each of the compound men’s team finals; the USA won stage one, Korea took stage two. But, with Korea absent from Salt Lake City, the US men dominated… almost.

Leading the Philippines by 12 points after three ends in their quarterfinal, the US team finished with a 47-point end in the wind, including a five in the wind from Wilde.

It was still enough to win, 222-216.

The next match, a semifinal against Chinese Taipei, was much tighter, with the USA finishing with a perfect 60 to secure a third consecutive gold medal match berth, 230-221.

Still the world’s number one ranked nation and reigning world champion, the compound men’s team event is important to the US.

“As a team we always want to win. We take pride in ourselves as the best compound nation for men and we wanna always win gold no matter where we are or who we’re shooting against, we have that expectation,” said Anderson.

The US face Mexico for the title in Salt Lake.

Both the host nation’s female teams will contest bronze at the stage, the recurves against Japan and compounds against Russia – after losing a tight shoot-off to Colombia in the semifinals.

The third stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup takes place in Salt Lake City, USA on 18-24 June.