Mixed feelings, as Charlotte and Simon win bronze medal
May 28th, 2010by Peter Jones
The listing was posted by Archery GB
British archers have won the bronze medal in the mixed recurve team tournament, at the European Target Championships, in Rovereto. Simon Terry and Charlotte Burgess beat rivals from Denmark and Poland, before losing to eventual gold medallists Italy (Marco Galiazzo and Natlia Valeeva) in the semi-finals. That set up a showdown for the bronze medal with Ukraine, after the pairing of Victor Ruban and Victoriya Koval lost to Germany (Sebastian Rohrberg and Elena Richter) in their semi-final. Despite suffering with a streaming cold, Charlotte ploughed on, and clearly inspired by a determined Simon – looking to make up for the disappointment of his shock first round exit in the individual championship – shot superbly to secure a medal. Said Charlotte: “I’m really thrilled by this, I’ve loved shooting with Simon, we really gelled as a pairing, and though we’ve already set our sights on improving next time, we are both delighted to have a medal.” Barry Eley, Team GB Performance Manager, said he was proud of both archers, with another medal guaranteed on Saturday. “It was a great performance by both archers, with much more to come from them both this year,” said Barry. “Charlotte gets a special mention because she really was suffering – so there’ll be no celebration for her tonight, I suspect she’ll be tucked up in bed early. “Now we are all looking forward to getting behind Andy Rikunenko in the men’s compound final tomorrow. “He’s up against Sergio Pagni of Italy, so he’ll have a partisan home crowd against him, but Andy’s a strong character and very determined, so he has every chance of winning a very much deserved gold medal.”