Paris, Sept 21, 2013: Alejandra USQUIANO, After contributing to Colombia’s historic first World Cup gold in Antalya, the 20-year-old archer from Medellin carries her country’s colours even higher in Paris.
Whoever won the first-round duel between Colombian stars Sara LOPEZ and Alejandra USQUIANO had a sure shot at a medal. Things did not look good for USQUIANO, winner of the Medellin stage, when she trailed Antalya champion LOPEZ by 4 points after two ends. However USQUIANO forced a shoot-off thanks to a perfect final end of 10-10-10. Shooting first, the archer from Medellin delivered a final 10 that LOPEZ couldn’t match.
In the semi-finals, the 20-year-old faced for the first time the double world champion Albina LOGINOVA, winner of the last World Cup stage in Wroclaw. USQUIANO led through most of the match, and with only a one-point advantage before the final end; she delivered a flawless 30 for the victory, 144-140.
After defeating the world N°3 and N°2, what awaited USQUIANO in the final was the task of stopping the N°1 Erika JONES, winner of the World Games and three individual World Cup silver medals this season.
The American had had an easy quarter-final against Sophie DODEMONT, beneficiary of the French wild card, who was Olympic team bronze medallist at Beijing 2008 in the recurve division, and recently made the switch to the compound bow. In the semi-finals, the 24-year-old archer took her revenge over SEOK Ji Hyun, the Korean compound sensation who deprived her of the team and individual gold medals at the Shanghai World Cup.
The final between USQUIANO and JONES was their third encounter of the year: in July USQUIANO defeated JONES in the final of the Medellin World Cup, and the American won their quarterfinal encounter at the World Games.
The final was very tight, with both women matching each other arrow for arrow until the start of the fifth end. A 9 by JONES followed by a 10 by USQUIANO gave her a slight advantage, and she kept it until the last arrow for a 143-142 win.
The final 10 brought to a close an impressive first appearance in the World Cup Final for the Colombian star, who managed to defeat not only the top three ranked archers in the world but also the two former World Cup Final winners (LOGINOVA and JONES) present in this competition.
“I think I’m going to bring a little Eiffel Tower home as a souvenir, because I have just won the great World Cup Final! The most important thing was not to win, but to make it here. I want to thank all the people who have contributed to my victory: my coach, my sponsors, the Colombian Federation. I am very happy as this is the outcome of six years of very hard work; obviously, I will go on working”!
The bronze medal matchup featured Albina LOGINOVA and SEOK Ji Hyun. LOGINOVA, winner of the World Cup Final in 2010, had been defeated twice in her career by the Korean archer, most recently in Shanghai in May. However today, a perfect first end allowed LOGINOVA to take a comfortable lead from the start; even though SEOK came close to a tie in the end, the Russian archer delivered the winning 10, for a victory 142-141 and the bronze medal. —- World Archery Communication
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