Danielle Brown hit gold and Mel Clarke bronze at the Paralympic Games individual compound open archery competition in Beijing today.
Danielle Brown wins Gold in Beijing/photo FITA
Brown won the battle of the Britons to win a place in the final at the expense of her teammate this morning and out-shot Japan’s Chieko Kemiya in the four round final 112 to 98.
The 20-year-old Yorkshire woman added the Paralympic gold to her world championship title hitting six maximum ‘golds’ from 12 arrows to her opponent’s one.
“I just went out there shooting,” said the Aire Valley archer. “It is my first Paralympics and I really wanted to get the gold.
“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet but I’m really happy. I had one dodgy arrow but otherwise it was a good match.”
Clarke, Brown’s predecessor as world champion, beat Su Guibin of Turkey to win bronze after losing to Brown by six points in the semi-final. Clarke fired six 10s to beat Su 113-109.
“I was gutted to go out in the first match,” she said. “But to win bronze is a dream come true.
“It’s difficult when you play your teammate. There are three of us here out of eight so we knew we had to meet sometime. It’s just unfortunate we had to meet in the semi-final.”
Brown out-shot Clarke 113 to 107 in the four round semi-final, hitting six maximums to Clarke’s two.
“We knew the chances of meeting each other were high,” said Brown, a Leicester University law student. “It was pretty tough knocking my teammate out but you just have to go out and shoot.”
The British archers were cheered on a large contingent of supporters. Clarke said: “It was good to have the support of the crowd. To come to my first Games and get a medal is absolutely brilliant. It is worth every minute of hard work.”
