Layla Annison is heading home from Nimes with silver medal after a dramatic shoot-off and a powerhouse performance by our junior compound women at the Indoor World Series!
She qualified in fourth place and was one of five Britons to make it to the eliminations. After seeing off Spain's Teresa Cerezo Bernet 144-140 she came up against fifth seed Ella Gibson in the quarter finals - and it was close. Layla edged ahead, setting up a three-point lead in the first two ends but then Ella fought back and both put in perfect scores in the third and scored 29 in the fourth. Ella scored another 30 in the fifth but it was not enough and Layla won 146-144.
Next she faced top seed Lucy Mason, fresh from setting a new British record of 589 during qualification and knocking out fellow Brit Grace Chappell in the first round. Layla started as she meant to go on, taking the first end 29-28. Lucy shot a perfect fourth end but the damage was done and Layla won 146-141. That meant the only athlete standing between her and the title was third seed Faith Miller. It was nip and tuck all the way and the match finished tied on 147, forcing a shoot-off. Layla shot a nine - but the American went one better to claim the title.
Lucy faced second seed Elisa Roner in the battle for bronze and the Italian led from the start. Lucy fought back to tie the third end but could not catch Roner, who had earlier denied Isabelle Carpenter a place in the semis. Fifteenth seed Matthew Wong went head to head with Adam Carpenter, ranked 18th, in the junior men's competition. Adam won 144-142 but was denied a place in the quarter finals by eventual gold medallist Carson Sapp of the USA.
Junior recurver Cameron Donaldson came agonisingly close to a bronze medal too. The 26th seed saw off Portugal's Nuno Carneiro 7-3 and France's Hugo Magonnet and Alexis Chainier 6-4 and 7-1 respectively. That left him facing third seed Slovenian Ziga Ravnikar for a place in the final. The Slovenian took an early advantage and, despite Cameron scoring a perfect 30 to take the third set, he won and went on to win a silver medal. The battle for bronze was against top seed Senna Roos and the Belgian took the medal 6-0. Fourteenth seed Jacob Reid also made the eliminations but lost an early shoot-off against Italy's Niccolo Lovo.
The other juniors who just failed to make the cut were compounders Chloe A'Bear, Iulia Petre, Rosemary Preece, Dillon Crow, Dru Ridding, Alex Parker, Alfie Ridding and recurvers Lauren Rawlings, Molly Peters and Daniel McLaren.
Recurver Patrick Huston qualified in 16th spot and beat Russia's Erdem Tsydypov 6-4 before being denied a quarter final place by Korean top seed Han Jaeyeop. And Tom Hall, ranked 13th, fell foul of a shoot-off against Ukraine's Oleksii Hunbin. Both athletes shot a 10 but Hunbin edged it. Sarah Bettles qualified in 11th spot but lost out to eventual silver medallist Casey Kaufhold of the USA. Bryony Pitman and Kate Dunnighan were the 20th and 21st seeds and each lost 4-6 to France's Angeline Cohendet and Italy's Claudia Mandia respectively. And Naomi Folkard was beaten in a shoot-off against Gabriela Bayardo of the Netherlands.
Compounders Bayley Sargeant and Sarah Moon made it to the eliminations, ranked 13th and 23rd respectively. Bayley lost out by a single point in the first round to Jody Vermeulen of the Netherlands. Sarah Moon beat Belgium's Lena Meynen Degryse 145-144, but went out in the second round to World Champion Natalia Avdeeva. Naomi Jones, shooting for the Netherlands, was also beaten by eventual bronze medallist Natalia Avdeeva in the first round.
Among those who just missed the cut were recurvers Alex Wise, Morgan Donaldson, Ryan Holden, Michael Judd, Scott Stanbury, Kyle Denham, Stephane Lericolais, Malcolm Dukes, Leslie Day, Tom Fewz, Yulia Larkins and Sophie Meering. Compounders included Andrea Gales, Sarah Prieels, Stephanie Clason, Kirsty Robb, Hannah Brown, Michelle Sword, Michael Parvess, John Foley and Jon Nott.
In the masters rankings, recurver Phil Hinckley was 16th, Andrew Smith 23rd and Ru Barlow 52nd. Our top compounder was sixth-placed Michael Parvess, followed by Alistair Whittingham, ranked 19th and Stephen Jones who finished 95th.
You can find all the results here.
You can also watch the medal matches on World Archery's Facebook page or YouTube channel
Picture: World Archery
