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Wills Clinches Grand Final Bronze

GNAS - 26/11/2007

Wills completed a successful year with his podium spot in Dubai
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British archer Alan Wills won bronze in the recurve event at the FITA World Cup Grand Final in Dubai.

It was a third major honour for Wills this year after winning bronze at the World Championships in Leipzig, as well as the silver medal at the Dover World Cup event - one of four qualifying events for the Grand Final.

In the four-man men's recurve tournament at the gala Dubai event, Wills lost his semi-final match to Mexico's Juan Rene Serrano by 108 points to 104, setting up a bronze medal shoot-off with Italy's Michele Frangilli of Italy.

After a slow start, he fought back to keep Frangilli in his sights, crucially taking advantage when the Italian shot a 4 in the last end. Wills was in no mood to waste the opportunity and duly secured his podium place, winning by a single point, 103-102.

"It's a fantastic result for Alan, and we're all very proud of him," said Team GB Performance Manager, Barry Eley. "It completes a brilliant year for him, and for British archery overall and we are all looking forward to 2008 and the Beijing Games with confidence," he added.

Meanwhile in the final, Baljinima Tsyrempilov of Russia justified his top seeding with a 112-110 victory over Serrano.

Elsewhere the women's recurve title went to India's Dola Banerjee, Petra Ericsson of Sweden won the women's compound gold medal, and El Salvador's Jorge Jimenez claimed gold in the men's compound event.