The GB women's teams have come home with three medals from the 2024 European Indoor Championships and three more individual medals.
At the European Indoor Championships in Croatia, GB earned themselves three championship titles, one silver medal and two bronze.
The opening finals match of the competition saw the GB U21 barebow women’s team face Iceland for the gold medal. The scores shot by Evie Finnegan, Isabel Plowman, and Emily Summers only increased with each end that passed, taking a 6-0 victory. This is the first ever barebow team medal won at a European Indoor Championships, senior or U21.
Up next on the finals stage for GB were the U21 compound women, comprising of Chloe A’Bear, Grace Coulam, and Mia Mcguane. GB took the lead after the first end, but despite their high shooting level, their opponents were able to maintain a three-point lead to take the win 229-225.
GB’s last match of Friday saw Ella Gibson, Grace Chappell, and Patience Wood shoot for the compound women’s team title. The match was neck and neck, almost to the point, the whole way through the five ends, resulting in a 232-232 shoot-off. Despite finishing with two nines and a ten, this was not enough from the Italian’s to beat GB’s perfect 30 to take the win.
Commenting on their shoot-off, Grace said: "I was just focused on thinking about my shot. I knew that they had a nine, so I just wanted to make my shot good because I knew it was going to go in the ten."
The barebow U21 women excelled at their debut international. Evie Finnegan came back from 4-2 down to take the bronze medal win with a 6-4 victory. Her teammate Isabel Plowman shot for the championship title against her Icelandic opponent. She was also down 4-0 on set points, but she kept on her game to take the win 6-4; she has become the first official barebow women’s U21 European Indoor champion for GB.
Isabel said: "It was very emotional. It was definitely not something I ever saw myself doing when I was younger, but I’m so immensely proud that I have. At the start it was very stressful, but I knew I just had to get into it because it was my first individual international final."
In the compound women’s bronze final, GB’s world number one, Ella Gibson, shot against the third ranked Croatian archer, Amanda Mlinaric. Ella made shot after perfect shot, not dropping a single nine until the final end, at which point it was too late for Mlinaric. A score of 149-147 to Ella earned her the bronze medal.
