MEDELLIN, CO – The third stage of the 2023 World Cup continued today in Medellin with the mixed team elimination rounds in the morning and then the individual elimination rounds after the midday break.
The mixed team of Kristine Esebua and Devaang Gupta were up against the Puerto Rican duo for their first match. Canada jumped out strong at the beginning with 36 points over 28 points in the first end, and carried that pattern forward through the remainder of the match. Esebua and Gupta walked away with the victory with a score of 6-0. That win moved them forward to the ⅛ final against 6th-ranked China. Again, the Canadian team was able to jump ahead in the first end. It was a close match through the remaining three ends, with Canada not dropping an end by more than one point. Unfortunately, our Canadian archers did not win the match and will not move on in the competition.
“The team shot really good matches as far as tactics go. They attacked the shots and the energy was perfect,” says Ron van der Hoff, National Coach Advisor. “A couple flyers in the close match against China cost us the match. It was close, but we know now we have a chance to do well in a mixed team competition.”
In the afternoon, all the archers got a chance to shoot in the individual matches. Eric Peters was up against German archer Moritz Wieser, where the two of them had a very close match. The match took the full five ends, but unfortunately, Peters lost the match by a score of 4-6. Crispin Duenas was up against Chih-Chun Tang from Chinese Taipei in his first match. After his opponent won the first end, Crispin took the next three ends with no arrow scoring less than nine. The Canadian won the final match with a score of 6-2. His next opponent was from the United States, Jack Williams. Duenas was unable to overcome Williams and unfortunately lost the match. Devaang Gupta shot his first round versus archer Mengqi Li from China. Gupta was also able to walk away with the win to move on after defeating his opponent 7-3. He was then up against the Dutch archer Steve Wijler in the next round. The ends went back and forth between the two athletes, eventually resulting in Wijler winning the match with a score of 6-4.
Stephanie Barrett was up against Zhiyun Xu from China for her first match. Barrett was able to outscore her opponent in the first end, but unfortunately, was unable to do the same in the remaining three ends. Xu won the match 6-2. Kristine Esebua shot her individual elimination match against Ezgi Basaran of Turkey; though she tied two ends, the result concluded in a 2-6 loss for the Canadian. Virginie Chénier faced 2nd-ranked Misun Choi of Korea in her first round, and though the two first ends were very close, she unfortunately dropped the match.
“Archery for us is one of the most important unimportant things in our lives. So this afternoon was tough for all of us,” further commented van der Hoff. “We wanted to get a bit further up the brackets than we did. But there are still some positives to take from today. We will evaluate and grow from it so we can do better next time.”
The results of today’s matches mean that the Canadian archers’ competition is done and they will now aim their arrows towards the remainder of a busy international season.
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Zoe Meil, Communications & Safe Sport Coordinator
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