Great Britain’s John Stubbs wins two archery world titles

Dag Burcu challenged two-time Paralympic champion Danielle Brown in the compound women’s open final, who was looking to defend the world title she won at Torino in 2011.

Five titles were awarded on Wednesday (6 November) at the World Archery Para-Championships in Bangkok, Thailand. The compound men’s W1, men’s and women’s open finalists battled for crowns, and the men’s and women’s teams shot their bronze and gold-medal contests.

Compound men W1

London 2012 Paralympic champion Jeff Fabry of the USA and Jean-Pierre Antonios of Finland contested compound men’s W1 gold in the first match of the day. The American took the initial lead, 56-52 after six arrows - but with one end to go, Antonios had closed the gap to just a point at 106-105. The Finnish archer calmly and methodically shot 10-10-9 with his last three arrows, while Fabry could only manage three 9s. Antonios captured the victory, 134-133, and the first gold medal of his career.

Compound women open

Dag Burcu challenged two-time Paralympic champion Danielle Brown in the compound women’s open final, who was looking to defend the world title she won at Torino in 2011.

Dag struck first, and took an early lead, 28-25. It was an advantage she would maintain throughout the match, until the last three arrows. A disappointing 24-point finish from the Turk let Brown draw the match and force a shoot-off.

Brown shot her arrow first, and scored a 9, and Dag’s 9 soon followed and she went on to win the gold medal.

Compound men's open

Great Britain’s John Stubbs was looking to improve on the compound men’s open silver medal he won in Torino at the 2011 World Archery Para-Championships, with only Forsberg standing in his way. Stubbs started the match with a perfect 30 to take an early one-point lead. His advantage doubled after six arrows, 58-56, but Forsberg took the third end to make it 85-84. Ignoring the pressure, Stubbs went on and eventually took his first world title with a score of 142-140.

Compound women’s team open

Iran’s compound women fell behind Japan early in their Asian bronze-medal encounter. Somajeh Abbaspour, Farzaneh Asgari and Seyedehzahra Hosseini found themselves down early and could not recovering, losing 213-199 to Japan’s Nako Hirasawa, Chieko Namiya and Miho Nago.

In the gold-medal match, Russia defeated the USA, 214-197 thanks to strong performances from Stepanida Artakhinova, Marina Lyzhikova and Olga Polegaeva. That left Martha Chavez, Arce Hess and Ashlee Sheppard with a silver medal.

Compound men’s team open

Slovakia, attempting to claim their first-ever medal in the compound division fell short to the USA’s Jeff Fabry, Jeff Sena and Lance Thornton in the bronze-medal contest.

The American trio defeated the Slovakian team of Peter Kascak, Marian Marecak and Marcel Pavlik, 27-26.

Shooting in his second final of the day, Stubbs teamed up with British archers Richard Hennahne and Frank Maguire to win gold over Italy’s Matteo Bonacina, Gianpaolo Cancelli and Alberto Simonelli. Great Britain recorded a 227-225 victory.