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by Mary Beth Vorwerk – USA Archery
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 21, 2004
ATHENS, Greece – After knocking off Sweden and number one ranked Italy, the U.S. men lost to Chinese Taipei in the semifinals, then Ukraine in the bronze medal match of the team round. The U.S. finished in fourth place, closing out archery competition at the 2004 Olympic Games.
In the first round of the team event, the number 11 ranked U.S. team of 2000 Olympic Individual Silver and Team Bronze Medalist Vic Wunderle (Mason City, Ill.), four-time Olympian Butch Johnson (Woodstock, Conn.) and John Magera (Carterville, Ill.) faced sixth ranked Sweden in the 27-arrow match.
The U.S. was down two points after the first three arrows, but jumped ahead after six and led the rest of the match, winning with a score of 246 points to Sweden’s 242 points, advancing to the quarterfinals to face the number one ranked men’s team from Italy.
“We have a reason to feel very confident shooting against Italy,” said Magera. “When you get to this level, anyone can win. We’re capable of shooting as well or better than any team out here.”
First up for the U.S. team in their quarterfinal match against Italy, who had a first round bye, was Johnson who shot a ten and two nines in his first three arrows, to Italy’s three nines, putting the U.S. in the lead 28-27.
After six arrows, the score was tied at 55 and the U.S. was ahead by six points after nine arrows. They held on and lead the rest of the way, taking the match and upsetting the number one ranked team 243-240, advancing to the semifinals.
Next, the U.S. was set to face second ranked Chinese Taipei, who had a first round bye and then beat seventh ranked Australia 250-247 in the quarterfinals.
“We have a tough match ahead of us,” said Magera. “Chinese Taipei us a tough team, but we still feel very confident because we’re shooting great scores.”
In their semifinal match against Chinese Taipei, the U.S. was on top the entire match until Chinese Taipei came back to tie the score at 189 going into the last six arrows and ended up taking the match 242-239 to shoot for the gold and sending the U.S. to the bronze medal match.
The U.S. faced fourth ranked Ukraine for the bronze and the two teams stayed within one to three points of each other until Ukraine came back and tied the score at 185 going into the last six arrows. Ukraine jumped ahead 211-210 with three arrows to go and won the match, taking the bronze medal by a close score of 237-235 after shooting two eights and a ten to the U.S.’s nine and two eights.
“I’m disappointed we didn’t get a medal, but we shot our best and that’s all you can do. We just came up a little short,” said Wunderle. “Had we been on a little more, we would be one of the best teams in the world right now, but now we have to set our sites on Beijing, move on and learn from this experience.”
The number one ranked men’s team from Korea won the gold medal, beating Chinese Taipei 251-245 in the finals.
Archery competition is taking place at Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, where the first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896, and it is built on top of the ancient Stadium dating from 329 B.C.
For complete results, please visit www.usarchery.org or www.athens2004.com.
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