21 August, 2017
Highlights from Day One
The World Masters Games in Auckland started with more shoot-offs for position that the organisers had bargained for. With over three hundred athletes at three different venues and with four different events going on all at the same time, the first day had the potential for chaos. Thanks to the masterly machinations of the administration team, it went off without a hitch, boding well for the next few days of competition.
In the Outdoor venue, a 72-arrow ranking round was held in the morning followed by match-play in the afternoon. In the Men’s Recurve 50-59 division, Peter Emanuel from New Zealand had ranked third, and he stormed through the matches to take Gold from Australia’s Graham Grossman (ranked 9).
In the Women’s Recurve 50-59 division, it was a tough fight. Dawn Nelson-Furnell of Australia ranked 1st, Britta Nordmeyer of Germany ranked 2nd, and Natalie Dielen Pilloud of Switzerland ranked 3rd. In the match-play, Dielen Pilloud squeaked into the gold final thanks to a 10-9 shoot-off against Nordmeyer in the semi-finals. Nordmeyer then went on to the bronze final against Laura Bennett of the USA, where she came out worse off in a 10-8 shoot-off. In the gold final, Nelson-Furnell and Dielen Pilloud did their best, with Dielen Pilloud winning the match and the gold medal 7 points to 3.
At the Indoor venue archers shot a 25m indoor round followed by an 18m round, and the results were given as a combined score of both rounds. Karl Hobman (New Zealand) took Gold in the Para Compound Open Men’s division, and it was a New Zealand 1-2-3 podium finish in the Men’s Compound 40-49 division, with Gustav Bam, Ary van Onselen and Bruce Shuker showing superb control. Evgenii Sergeev of Russia won the Men’s Compound 30-39 division, with Ian Asidera from Australia second and Eamonn Macruaidhri of Ireland third.
The two field rounds were shot at Massey Archery Club in West Auckland. There is a 24-target World Archery field round, and a 28-target IFAA field round. The World Archery round was dominated by Australians on day one, with them taking 4 out of the 6 divisions shot that day. The only two countries to get a word in edgeways were Lis Becker of Germany in Women’s Recurve 60-69 division, with the gold, and Sue Phillips of the USA in the Women’s Recurve 70+ division.
In the IFAA round the most exciting results of the day were down to the Women’s Compound 50-59 division, where Linda Lainchbury of New Zealand won the gold medal. Lainchbury has been a NZ representative archer at World Cup, World Championship events, and has even competed in the Pro Archer series and the Welsh Masters. Alanna Dunaway of USA and Fiona Guest of New Zealand tied for second place, with scores that were dead-on even with a countback! To determine medals, the archers were asked to perform a shoot-off, standing on a 3m high tower, shooting 20m away at a 40cm face. But after four arrows each, they were still tied! The judges asked for another arrow each, closest to the centre, and Dunaway had it, claiming the silver with Guest taking the bronze.
Full results can be found here: http://www.worldmastersgames2017.co.nz/the-sports/schedules-and-results/archery/results-by-category/
