At the fourth and final stage of the 2022 Hyundai World Cup in Colombia, Great Britain's compound women's team have earned a spot in Saturday's gold medal final.
Medellin, Colombia is playing host this week to the fourth stage of the Hyundai World Cup.
On Tuesday, the compound archers completed their qualification. Ella Gibson topped the ranking table with 712 points, Izzy Carpenter came in 9th place with 696, Lizzie Foster shot a 690 to put her in 16th position, and Layla Annison was in 25th place with a 681.
The GB women's team came first after the qualification round with a combined score of 2098, a new unofficial European record.
In the team eliminations today (Thursday), the team comprising of Ella Gibson, Izzy Carpenter and Lizzie Foster had a bye in the 1/8 round. They then met the team from Brazil in the quarter-finals, where they had a good head start, shooting a 58 to the opponent's 53 in the first end. In end two, GB shot a 59-57, and in the third end the Brazilian's brought back one point shooting a 57 to GB's 56. The GB women ended the match with a 59 to take the win 232-224.
Next was the semi-finals against the 4th ranked team from Korea, and it was a close match from the very first arrow. It was 59 apiece in the opening end, and then the Korean's shot a perfect 60 to GB's 59 to take a one point lead, 119-118. GB had a 57, but the Korean's only dropped a 58, extending their lead by two going into the final end. It all came down to the last arrows, Korea only needing a 9 to take the match. Unexpectedly, the Korean's final shot went into the 7, and GB kept their nerve until the very end to win the match by one, 233-232.
The women will shoot for the compound women's team gold medal against Colombia in Saturday's live final.
"It's been a somewhat challenging week to say the least! At the end of the day though, we are here to compete and we all brought our game to the team matches. Having never shot as a team it was great to have a bye match to run through our pattern. We led from the start against Brazil and built on this versus Korea," Lizzie Foster said.
"The match against Korea was tight the whole way through, and going into the last end being two points down we knew we all had to shoot well to have a chance. I am so proud of us all for having the grit to close the match as strongly as we did and to not ever think about giving up. Bring on Saturday!"
Team Manager Tom Duggan said: "Lizzie, Izzy and Ella did brilliantly this morning to get through to the gold medal match. It was a tough match against the Koreans, but they kept at it and clinched the win with the last arrow. They are looking forward to shooting against the Colombians in their own backyard."
The Great Britain recurves completed their qualification round ahead of the eliminations on Wednesday. For the recurve men, Patrick Huston ranked the highest in 32nd place with 655, and Tom Hall finished with 650 in 43rd position. In 55th place was Conor Hall with 644, and Alex Wise shot 637 points to place him in 66th.
On the women's side, Bryony Pitman ranked top for GB with 664 which put her in 6th place overall. Penny Healey was next in 13th position with 655 points. In 25th place was Jaspreet Sagoo with 644 points, and Sarah Bettles was just below in 28th place with 643.
For the mixed team event, Bryony Pitman and Patrick Huston ranked in 9th with 1319 points total.
The men's team, comprising of Patrick Huston, Tom Hall and Conor Hall, finished in 11th place with 1949 points.
Bryony Pitman, Penny Healey and Jaspreet Sagoo's combined score of the recurve women's team was 1963 to rank them in 3rd place overall.
"The Recurve teams will be looking forward to continuing the progress they have been making this season and testing ourselves again at this level," Tom Duggan said.
