Roodepoort archer excels in Egypt
The preparation for her participation in the 2016 Olympic Games now has entered the next level.
Sandra Prinsloo, the Protea recurve archer from Florida Park recently returned from the African Championships in Egypt with gold, silver and bronze medals.
On the Saturday in the qualification rounds she shot a score of 601 out of a possible 720. This gave her the fourth place out of 15 on the ranking list of female recurve archers at the competition.
On the Sunday she contested the open category of the individual recurve women’s event. In this category all contestants compete, including those who do not have citizenship of an African country. In the first elimination match Prinsloo eliminated Natalie Dielen of Switzerland by six points to 0. In the second elimination match she lost against Egypt’s top archer Hania Founda by six points to 0. But in the shootout for the bronze medal against Amira Mansour of Egypt, she won by six points to 0. The final result was Founda winning gold, Reema Monsour of Egypt winning silver and Prinsloo winning bronze.
On the same day, Prinsloo contested the closed category of the recurve mixed team event with team mate Marco Di Matteo. In this category only citizens of African countries could compete, with the teams consisting of one male and one female archer. They reached the gold medal match directly by ranking second in the qualification rounds. In the gold medal match, they were defeated by the pair from Egypt to 1 and therefor winning gold.
On the Monday Prinsloo contested the open category of the recurve mixed team event with Di Matteo. In the first elimination match they eliminated the team from Algeria by six points to 0. They then faced the two top Egyptian recurve archers Founda and Ibrahim in the gold medal match. This match produced archery of an exceptionally high standard by both teams. In the end, it was the South African pair who won gold by six points to two.
When the South African team arrived back in Johannesburg with their coach Barbara Manning and the president of the National Archery Association Dr Selwyn Moskovitz, they were welcomed warmly by a group of other current top South African recurve archers and their families.
Prinsloo’s preparation for her participation in the 2016 Olympic games now has entered the next level of intensity and will include more international competitions.
