Italy Beats US by 1 Point in Archery Final

In a dramatic final Italy beat the United States by just one point to win gold in archery at the London Olympics.

Halfway through the Italians led by four points but the US hit back to halve the deficit entering the last round. In the end it came down to the final arrow when Italy’s Michele Frangilli scored a 10 to win the competition 219-218.

Going into the final three arrows the US were only one point behind, the team, Kaminski, Wukie and Ellison, shot 8, 10 and 9 respectively. This was followed by Italy’s Marco Galazzo shooting 8 on two of his final three shots leaving Frangilli needing his shot of 10 to avoid a three-arrow tiebreaker.  Frangilli said that he felt “incredible pressure” but just tried to empty his head and rely on his technique.

The US came close to missing out on a medal altogether after they fell behind halfway through the quarterfinal against Japan before managing to pull back and win 220-219. After the match against Japan, Kaminski said that it was just “how archery goes.” He said that they always start off a bit slow but then have the “confidence we’re going to finish and really drive it home at the end.” Kaminski said that Japan had an advantage shooting a match and not having a bye. He said that the American team couldn’t read the wind because of the huge stands which “totally influences and changes everything.”

However, the agonising loss was outweighed by the fact that the US team was the first from their country to win a medal at the Olympics and the first US archery team to medal since 2000. Brady Ellison of Glendale said that he was “really excited about the silver medal” but did say it’s a shame it wasn’t gold.