Heavy downpours and gusty winds gave an added edge to today's National Tour recurve finals - but nothing was going to get in the way of Jaspreet Sagoo and Tom Hall claiming this year's titles.
Fourth seed Jaspreet beat Yulia Larkins 6-0 then top seed Bryony Pitman in a nailbiting semi-final as gusts whipped arrows off course. Jaspreet took an early lead and, despite a determined fightback by the defending champion, secured a 6-4 win. Her title rival was second seed Naomi Folkard who had seen off Rebekah Tipping 6-0 and Sarah Bettles in a shoot-off.
Naomi edged the first set but the two athletes were evenly matched. Then, as they started set five, the wind picked up again. Jaspreet shot 3-7-8 while Naomi scored 4-4-9 - and that tied the match, forcing a shoot-off. Naomi shot an eight but Jaspreet sealed the win with a nine. Bryony took bronze, edging Sarah out in another shoot-off.
Â"This means a lot,” said Jaspreet. Â"The last time I shot in a National Series final was two years ago and I came second. I was really hoping to beat that.”
The men's title went to Tom Hall. The top seed beat Conor Hall 6-0 and Michael Judd 6-2 to book a gold medal showdown with defending champion Alex Wise. The third seed had seen off Cameron Donaldson 6-2 and Antony Wood 7-3 but could not get past Tom, losing 2-6. The bronze medal went to Michael, who beat Antony 6-2.
There was plenty of action in the recurve Key Event finals too. Hannah Rowley took the junior crown after beating Nicole Burdett 6-0 and Sophie Castle 6-4 in a hard-fought final. Ruby Paul took bronze, beating Nicole 6-4.
Cadet Penny Healey started as she meant to go on. The top seed had a bye into the semis where she beat Shauna Punjabi 7-1. That brought her face to face with third seed Imogen Newby who had seen off Lauren Rawlings 6-0 and Thea Rogers 6-0. There was a hard battle for gold but Penny eventually won 6-2. Shauna took bronze, beating Thea 6-0.
The top two seeds went head to head in the men's cadet title showdown. James Woodgate beat Austin Whitmarsh 6-2 to secure his place and Monty Orton, ranked second, beat Marco Costanza 6-0. But it was James who took gold with a 6-0 win and Marco beat Austin 6-4 to claim bronze
You can check out the finals action on our Facebook page or You Tube channel.
You can find all the results here.
Above: Recurve champion Jaspreet Sagoo. Picture: Malcolm Rees
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