Shropshire Star

Telford archer Danielle Brown claims silver in World Cup Final

THE FAIRYTALE summer of Shropshire Paralympic gold medallist Danielle Brown continued today as she claimed a sensational silver medal in archery's World Cup final.

Published

Telford's Brown, who won gold at London 2012 and Beijing four years earlier, claimed two notable scalps to reach the gold-medal compound match before being edged out by American Jamie Van Natta in a thrilling conclusion in Japan.

The 24-year-old was creating a slice of sporting history by becoming the first Paralympian to ever compete in the elite able-bodied event, which saw the top eight performers from three World Cup events compete.

She was ranked 10th but received a late wild card call-up following the withdrawal of Venezuela's Olga Bosch.

And Brown took full advantage with a brilliant display to defeat the archers ranked two and three in the world, Marcella Tonioli and Christie Colin, before pushing the experienced Van Natta to the brink in the final.

Van Natta found herself three ahead at the halfway stage and maintained that advantage to lead 114-111 at the conclusion of the penultimate end.

Opening

But Brown kept the pressure on and her hopes alive with a 10 and two nines.

Van Natta displayed signs of nerves by beginning the final end with an eight but steadied herself to secure the nine she required with her last arrow to claim a narrow 140-139 victory.

Brown earlier had a successful start to her World Cup career with a quarter-final win over Tonioli.

The Shropshire hope got off to a bad opening by only scoring a seven with her second arrow, and Tonioli had stretched her lead to 116-112 going into the final end.

But then disaster struck for the Italian. Brown scored three 10s in the final end and Tonioli failed to score with her second arrow and went down to a 142-136 defeat before Brown defeated Colin by four in the semi-final.

Brown, a law graduate, won gold in the women's individual compound in London.

She took up the sport at the age of 15 after she was diagnosed with reflex sympathetic dystrophy, a neurological condition that causes her severe burning pains in her feet.

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