The recurve men’s event ran closer to the form book, with top seeds Brady Ellison and Florian Unruh both making the semifinals, where they will face Israeli Olympians Roy Dror and Itay Shanny. Dror posted a huge score of 102 in the semifinals.
“I feel amazing,” said Dror. “It was very difficult for me. There were a lot of mental challenges today, but I managed to make a lot of good shots and shoot a very high score, which I’m very happy about. Tomorrow I’m going to do everything exactly the same.”
Dror has been posting high-level target results – especially indoors – for several years, but this is only his second field competition.
“I had a competition in Luxembourg a few weeks ago, so it’s new to me, but I started doing it so I could, in the future, participate in the World Games and get a world ranking – and now I will keep doing it!”
In recurve women, top seed Roberta Di Francesco made the semifinals, but there was an upset as France’s 10th seed Audrey Machinet knocked out the other Italian, Chiara Rebagliati, in the quarterfinals.
Slovenia’s Zana Pintaric and USA’s Casey Kaufhold, competing at her first world field championships, complete the Saturday semifinal line-up.
In compound women, the top three seeds – and the same three medallists from Lac La Biche 2024 – all came through their matches to make the semifinals. Paige Pearce, Ella Gibson and Amanda Mlinaric will be joined by 13th seed Austria’s Brigitte Steiner.
Gibson was acutely aware of her previous experience in Yankton, particularly her visit in 2022.
“Last time I came to Yankton I made a final four and I finished fourth, so I really liked it before, but with them, of course, every competition your aim is always to win,” the British archer said. “I know there are some great archers here. I’ll shoot my game and hopefully it’ll be enough to win this time.”
