Recurve men open archers Samuel Molina and Héctor Julio Ramirez poled simultaneously as the pair tied the exact same scores in the Americas Para Archery Cup leg 2.
Mexico’s Molina is unsurprisingly the big favourite to top the podium in Chicago, standing at number two in the world rankings and holding an impressive resume that includes two para Pan American Championship golds, a champion of the Santiago 2023 Para Pan American Games and the victor in leg one earlier this year.
Ramirez, however, not even picked for Colombia in the competition but rather representing his club ‘Meta’, accumulated the same points as his fellow Paralympian across the 72-arrow round, dropping 634, the same number of Xs [five] and 10s overall [19].
It means there will be two number ones in the recurve men open bracket rather than the usual one definitive top seed.
Both wiped the floor with the rest of the eight-athlete field as Juan Diego Blas Fernández of Guatemala was the closest to 634 at 618 – that’s a 16-point (rather large) gap.
Molina defeated Blas in the first leg of the debuting Americas Para Cup in Morelia earlier this summer 6-0 but if the tightness of Friday’s qualifications are anything to go by, then a Molina versus Ramirez battle for gold could serve up a treat on Sunday, should results go their way.
The rest of the disciplines at the Dunbar Park sports complex you could say had gone as expected.
Kevin Polish – like Molina a Santiago 2023 champion – dominated in the compound men open field dropping 699 with the nearest to the American being Costa Rica’s Diego Quesada Arias at 683.
The 2019 World Para Champion Nur Syahidah Alim poled in the compound women open [676] although the Singaporean wasn’t the best in the qualification in terms of Xs as another Costa Rican María del Pilar Riveros [664 overall] dropped 41 in the spider, Alim managed 37.
Paris 2024 gold medallist Jason Tabansky had the biggest margin however in Illinois in the Men W1 Open with a massive 48-point gap between him and second seed Ryan Lindstrom, both hailing from the USA.
The gold medal matches in Chicago are taking place on Sunday.
