2 June 2009
Nicky Hunt, the Be Number 1 compound archer, warmed up for the third leg of the World Cup series, which gets underway in Antalya, Turkey today, in the best possible fashion by beating Jamie Van Natta, the world No 1, to win the final of the Gold Cup in Newark, New Jersey.
Hunt, who is in the form of her life, created history last month by winning the second leg of the World Cup series in Porec, Croatia to become the first British archer to claim victory in an individual World Cup event. And her only regret at tasting success in New Jersey, which she achieved by edging past Van Natta by a 115-114 margin in a gripping contest, is that the Gold Cup does not count as a ranking tournament.
"I qualified well in third place, and went through on the head-to-heads by winning against the third-ranked archer in the world," said Hunt. "And then in the final, I beat the world No 1!
"I am gutted it wasn't a world ranking tournament, because basing it on the Arizona Cup earlier in the year, which is very similar, it would probably have raised my world ranking to fourth. Still, I performed well and it gave me a great boost before flying out to Turkey for the third leg of the World Cup."
British compound archers did not compete in the first event of the four-leg series, which was held in the Dominican Republic in April, because of a lack of funding.
But Hunt's 25 points for winning gold in Croatia catapulted her into equal fourth place in the overall women's compound World Cup standings, nine points behind leader Ivana Buden. The top four archers after the four legs qualify for the prestigious World Cup final, which takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark in late September.
However, with only the best three results over the four legs counting towards qualification for Copenhagen, Hunt still possesses a gilt-edged chance of qualifying for the season's finale.
