Jyothi, however, regained her composure, bringing together all the experience she has learnt since making her senior debut in 2011 and hit four 10s, including two Xs, in her next four shots.
“I’m just happy that I won the gold medal today and I hope to continue the run in the next World Cups too.”
“LA’s a long way to go but this year we have the World championships, the Asian championships and the World Cups, so we just want to focus on shooting our best in each and every tournament and win as many medals as possible for our country.”
It was also a fantastic result for mixed team bronze medallists Slovenia. In that historic recurve men Paris 2024 Olympic final last year between Brady Ellison and Kim Woojin, Toja was the one watching her spouse in the stands bid for medals but the roles were reversed at Lake Myrtle Sports Park.
As the ninth seed from qualification, Toja and Tim Jevsnik were up against Italy’s Elisa Roner, a 2023 European Games bronze medallist, and Michea Godano, who had just won silver in the men’s team, but against the odds beat them 155-151, which included a perfect final score of 40 between the pair at the end.
“I have always been an overall shooter. I just became a mum, but I never stopped shooting,” said the Lac La Biche gold medallist Toja. “I think sometime,s because I haven’t been so active in a World Cup circuit, people thought I was out. I wasn’t.”
“I’ve been training. I’m shooting. My archery in the USA and field has maybe been my strongest disicipline but I‘ve fit in (to outdoors) right after.”
The compound individual final fours for both men and women athletes will take place this afternoon in Central Florida, which you can watch on archery+.
