Guatemala World Cup
International competition restarts in South America
Bow’s coverage of international archery has been on pause for an entire year’s worth of issues, and the restarting of the international circus, with barely three months to go before a potentially troubled Olympic Games, was always going to be interesting.
The Games may be the biggest thing in the sport but for the recurve side of the competition, occasionally it seems like the Olympics is a black hole, something so immense on the calendar that it sucks in all energy, resources and attention. You feel like there are other things to worry about, but the cachet and importance of becoming an Olympian, and the funding of teams that qualification often secures from national sporting bodies, is often far more important than what will eventually transpire on the field in Yumenoshima Park.
Many of the sides pitching up in Guatemala are craving those final precious three team spots available at the last team qualification tournament in Paris in June – places that they failed to secure at that desperate first team match in Den Bosch all the way back in summer 2019. It’s been a long and painful amount of time to wait.
The list includes big archery nations. Italy and the USA both have just a single male and female archer qualified. The Indian women and the Spanish, German, Russian and Ukrainian men are all looking for spots. The most glaring omission from the qualification table is France, who do not have a single archer going to Tokyo. Many of these took the chance of flying to Guatemala, hoping to get in shape for the last chance saloon(s) ahead.
All the major Asian teams, including Korea, Chinese Taipei, China and Japan passed on the opportunity to fly to central America for the week, which left an international
imbalance. Korea has indicated that it would not be attending any World Cup events due to quarantine difficulties, and it is increasingly clear that we are unlikely to see a full-strength archery peleton at any event before Tokyo. If there are any surprise packages waiting to tear through seedings, they will remain a surprise.
In terms of surprises, Madalina Amaistroaie of Romania was flying under the radar until she stormed the women’s brackets, putting in monster scores to become the first Romanian woman to make a World Cup final four. Two ends into the final she faltered, and against an experienced competitor like Alejandra Valencia, she never quite got it back on track. You definitely felt there was some raw talent there, however, and if she can keep her head on, she could do some serious damage.
But the women’s competition belonged to Deepika Kumari, who has shifted up a gear. A good finals performance from Mackenzie Brown took it to a shootoff; a test Kumari passed with flying colours. This was only a short while before her husband, Atanu Das, gave a classy performance in the men’s final to take gold against Daniel Castro.
The talented young Spaniard held the lead after three sets with a 4-2 advantage, before Das turned on the afterburners with a 29 and a 30 to take the title.
In the men’s competition, the shock defeat of Brady Ellison in the 1/16, to the Netherlands’ Gijs Broeksma, was perhaps the biggest news of the day. We’re all getting used to seeing Ellison stroll through to the podium, but his rather unguarded remark afterwards (“We’ll see if he throws 25s in the next match or if he’s gonna win it”) was seen as uncharitable by some, especially as Broeksma is clearly now moving up to the levels of his teammates Steve Wijler and Sjef van den Berg.
The team battles on Saturday saw India’s recurve women edge out a disciplined Mexico in a shoot-off. It was India’s first team gold for seven years, and they also took bronze in the mixed team to complete a best ever World Cup haul. The Spanish men’s team also made history, with Miguel Alvarino Garcia, Daniel Castro and Pablo Acha taking the first Spanish team gold in the 15-year history of the event by beating the USA 6-2. The USA men, featuring Brady, Matt Requa and the less-wellknown Josef Scarboro never quite looked in full contention against tight, focused work from all three Spanish men. You still fancy the USA men to nick a team spot in Paris, but it’s clear they will need to produce more than this showing to do it.
In the compound competition, the USA had sent a full-strength squad south of the border.
A men’s final featuring Braden Gellenthien and Mike Schloesser was not a surprise – this is the 13th time the pair have faced off, and it’s now 8-5 to Braden, as he lifted yet another World Cup trophy in Guatemala, 148-146. His wife, Tanja Gellenthien (neé Jensen), was also in action in the women’s final, but came up against Nora Valdez of Colombia, who had a date with destiny. Both women shot 144 and in the shoot-off Valdez, acting first, drilled the dead centre of the target to make her first World Cup final. Again, a favourite fell: reigning World Cup champion Sara Lopez, who had not qualified well, was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Alexis Ruiz.
The USA also claimed the women’s compound team gold, with Paige Pearce, Ruiz and Linda Ochoa-anderson running over Mexico, 229-223. It was a different story for the Mexican men, with Antonio Hidalgo, Miguel Becerra and Uriel Olvera taking gold in the team event, defeating Colombia, 230-227. In the last team final of the day, Denmark's Tanja Gellenthien and Stephan Hansen won the mixed team compound gold against Mexico’s Andrea Becerra and Antonio Hidalgo, 158-156.
With the circuit next moving to Lausanne in mid-may, then the European championships in Turkey, followed by Paris in June, it is squeaky bum time for many national sides, and a pile of headaches for archers and organisers in the face of complicated quarantine and visa requirements. We can hope it stays this exciting, however.