Posted by: lorrettasinclair on: July 12, 2009
Today was a great day for Team USA. I’m sure you’ve all seen the results – but I’ll give you a recap, just in case you missed them. Erika won the bronze medal in individual women’s compound; Steve Gatto won gold in individual men’s compound; and the men’s team (Zach, Steve, and Steve) won gold in the men’s team round! Hooray for US College Archery!
The day started out cold and rainy. Bill and Erika went to the field early and the rest of us caught up before the match started. Erika built up a solid lead, then shot a 7 and an 8, giving Brittany a near heart attack up in the stands – but she followed it up with a 10, and finished the match with a one point lead.
Steve Gatto – well, he was just plain awesome. His mother, Angel, was in need of oxygen a few times in the match – although I’m not sure why, because Steve won his match handily with a 118.
Our women’s compound team ran into trouble when Brittany and Elissa each had two misses. Brittany later wanted to shoot the match over – and if we would have been allowed, I’m sure we would have won, but as it is, we leave with a 4th place finish.
Gatto, Schwade and Zach were almost perfect and won the gold medal match with 23 out of 24 points. They, along with Tom Barker in the coaches box, made archery look easy, winning the gold medal over Mexico 23-19.
The USA Archery Team leaves Belgrade with 2 gold medals, a silver, and a bronze. This puts us in second place in the Archery medal standings behind Korea.
The team support was excellent and all that college archery could want as all of the recurve archers supported the compound archers, not only taking turns running arrows, but also in the stands chanting for our archers.
The Gatto family was unable to purchase tickets to closing ceremonies, but one of our attache’s, Lilliana, who is fantastic, called the mayor – and got them for us! The support from US FISU, which is essentially a bunch of great coaches, trainers, and volunteers from other US colleges have been remarkable. Without them – my job as team leader would have been much more difficult.
Team USA has discovered that we are a very creative problem solving group. Not only can we make shower curtains out of plastic flags and serve banquet lunches on muddy soggy fields. We can make a shirt protector out of our credential lanyards and a gallon sized Ziploc bag. We discovered that rubbing soap on creaky hinges silences them and that mud splattered white skirts can be cleaned by hand with some water and a baby-wipe while on the muddy field – and held in the wind to dry while the team practices. Never a dull moment in Serbia – and no problem that we have been unable to solve.
Curfew has ended as competition is over. The team has gone out to mix and mingle in the village with their fellow athletes and the staff is trying to figure out what to do with ourselves since we, for once, have some downtime.
Mandy, Jenny, Jacob, Bill and I are going to go back to the fort and watch the stars, while Marcia and Tom decided to go over to the mall for some quiet time.
Tomorrow we will do some more sightseeing – Tim wants to see an old orthodox temple that is being restored, Mandy wants to go on a boat cruise on the Danube, and Erin wants to souvenir shop in a Serbian open air market. Closing ceremonies are at 8 pm – with a party afterwards.
Lorretta
12 July 2009
