The one-off 11-ring helped Denmark book their place in the compound men’s team gold medal match at the third stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Antalya, Türkiye.
Guatemala was the semifinal victim of Mathias Fullerton, Martin Damsbo and Rasmus Bramsen‘s sharp shooting at the Antalya Centennial Centre. But it was the quarterfinal win over the USA where the Danes truly capitalised on the new scoring system being trialled this week – a new 11-ring scoring zone rather than normal 10X score.
Denmark narrowly edged the American trio of Sawyer Sullivan, Curtis Broadnax and Nick Kappers by a single point, 248-247 – hitting 10 11s to the USA’s nine. With 10s counted below 11s, Denmark’s 12 to the USA’s 13 would have otherwise forced a shoot-off under traditional scoring.
“It was a very close match,” said 40-year-old archer and coach Damsbo. “It’s always a good match against the US. We’ve had such big history with them, going back and forward, so it was really nice that we could pull this one.
“But the new X scoring system is tricky for the brain. It’s tricky to figure out, so we don’t even know [how close it is] before we get down there and see the target.”
Damsbo has been part of several defining Denmark-USA clashes over the past decade, with Thursday’s contest in sweltering temperatures in Türkiye just their latest exchange of arrows at major competitions.
He helped secure Danish gold against the Americans at the Antalya 2013 and Wroclaw 2015 Hyundai Archery World Cups – but also stood on the losing side in the 2011 World Archery Championships and 2014 World Indoor Championship finals.
It’s fair to say there’s a “big history”, but Denmark will now face home nation Türkiye in Saturday’s gold medal match.
