Archery and equestrian golds for ParalympicsGB

In the women’s archery individual compound (open) competition, Danielle Brown faced Mel Clarke, both of ParalympicsGB, in the final.

Brown, from Steeton, West Yorkshire, won the final by a score of six points to four, against Clarke in a competition for all archery all classifications (see below).

In the equestrian individual freestyle test under the Ia classification, Sophe Frederiksen, riding Janeiro 6, dominated the competition. She won gold with a dressage score, worked out from average scores out of ten, of 84.75. The silver medal went to Laurentias Tan, of Singapore, who scored 79, and bronze was won by Ireland’s Helen Kearney with a score of 78.45.

In archery there are three disability classifications, Archery Standing (ST), Archery Wheelchair One (W1) and Archery Wheelchair Two (W2). The difference between compound and recurve archery is to do with the type of bow used.

Brown (ST) was the favourite going into the final, having scored 676 in the ranking round of the competition – the highest score of the 12 Paralympic archers in the open individual compound competition. Clarke (W2) had achieved 648, the third highest score.

In the quarter-finals Brown, who has complex regional pain syndrome, beat Spain’s Maria Rubio Larrion, before defeating Russia’s Marina Lyzhnikova in the semi-finals. Lyzhnikova went on to win bronze.

Clarke, who is paralysed from the waist down as a result of Lyme’s disease, beat Japan’s Miho Nagano and Russia’s Stepanida Artakhinova respectively.