French finalists take gold, silver and twice bronze in Marrakesh

Over 50 of the 200+ athletes competing in Marrakesh travelled from France. The largest nation represented at the opening tournament on the international indoor archery calendar, French archers bagged four of the 12 available podium places.

Gold: Vandionant 

Sandrine Vandionant represents Nimes, the French city that hosts the third stage of the Indoor Archery World Cup in 2015. She, and the Nimes team, started the season well, with gold in Marrakesh.

An experienced international athlete who won the indoor circuit in 2012, Vandionant was seeded top.

“This is my first indoor event of the year,” said Sandrine. “And I’ve been happy with how I’ve been shooting all week.”

She converted the prime position in the bracket into gold, never letting an opponent get within six points of her in matchplay before the final – when she soundly saw off Sarah Holst Sonnichsen, 145-141. Sandrine took a three-point lead in the second end, shooting three 10s to her Danish opponent’s triplet of nines, and never looked back.

Silver: Schuh 

The 2003 World Archery Indoor Champion, Berengere Schuh has been and remain a medal threat, particularly at 18 metres. She took recurve women’s gold in Marrakesh in 2014, and was within just a few set points of repeating the achievement in 2015.

She was stopped only by Guendalina Sartori in the final.

While Schuh put three arrows in the eight and posted four straight sets of 28 points, Sartori shot six perfect arrows in a row to win the back two sets and take the match, 6-2. The Italian athlete didn’t miss the gold through her 12 shots.

Bronze: Valladont 

Lucas Daniel and JC Valladont’s recurve men’s bronze medal match went back and forth. Lucas starting with a 30, JC posting a perfect set in the second. The advantage circled again, until Lucas arrived in the fifth set with a 5-3 advantage, and had a chance to win it with his final arrow.

He shot an eight when he needed a 10, the match went to a shoot-off and – in true, gritty JC-style – Valladont won it.

“I only finished my holiday on Monday,” the outdoor Archery World Cup Final silver medallist in 2015 revealed. “So I came here and concentrated just on my technique, not shooting for the sight. Maybe I was a bit lucky in the matches but the shooting in qualification was easy and I ranked first.”

Valladont won his quarterfinal in a tiebreaker. The final shoot-off was his second in three matches: “It’s just one arrow, no problem!” 

BRONZE: PRIEELS 

Sarah Prieels, Vegas winner in 2015, was the second seeded compound woman in Marrakesh. The only archer that beat her over the ranking round was Vandionant, the winner of the tournament. (Sandrine had 583 for the ranking round, Sarah 580.)

After suffering an upset to the hands of Sarah Holst Sonnichsen in the semis, Prieels rallied for a bronze final against Dahlia Crook, from the USA.

The pair were even after three arrows, even after six, nine and 12 arrows. 

It wasn’t until the very last arrow that the scores separated. Both archers shot 10, 10 to start the final end, then Prieels put in a third to finish – but Crook’s last shot landed wide nine. Her face told the story before the arrow landed. Prieels took the match by a point, 144-143.