The 18-year-old now has the opportunity to grab her second medal in Central Florida after helping the USA’s women capture bronze on Wednesday.
“I was in 10th, but it just felt like my shots weren‘t flowing exactly how they normally do. I was on the practice turns a lot trying to figure that out, and things just wouldn’t really click together for me.”
“I changed a little bit with my sight picture. I wasn’t seeing super clear like I normally want to, so I changed clarifiers a little bit, and I do think that helped, but I think it was mostly mental.”
Whilst Dean is the last American standing in the individual compound event, Mexico is guaranteed a medal, as Andrea Becerra and Mariana Bernal will face off in the semis – with Bernal making her World Cup stage debut this weekend upon her return to the Mexican national side not featuring at all in 2024.
“I felt more focused,” revealed Bernal, the under-18 world record holder for the 24-arrow team round. “The release? I’m a fan of punching, and now I’ve been practising on that, and I think it was reflected in these results.”
In the compound men’s individual competition, number one seed Sebastian Garcia continued his fine form at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex by beating Italy’s Michea Godano in a quarterfinal shoot-off.
The Mexican is set to face Asian Games silver medallist Abhishek Verma, while world number two Mathias Fullerton will go up against Chen Chieh-Lun – both of whom posted perfect scores of 150 on the day.
Competition in Central Florida continues with mixed team eliminations on Friday morning, followed by recurve eliminations in the afternoon.
