Despite a poor start, MarÍa Monica Daza Guzman recovered drastically to win recurve women open gold at the Chicago 2025 Americas Para Archery Cup leg 2.
Chicago was Guzman’s first competition since the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games and marks her third senior international individual gold following victories at the Santiago 2022 and 2024 Pan American Para Championships.
“I thought about my family, my country, the people I love, my angels that I have in heaven,” she said to archery+ after the match. “I have enough strength to overcome these matches.”
The Colombian’s campaign in Paris last year ended disappointingly early in the first round and it started off shakily against the USA’s Karen Sternfeld on Sunday afternoon.
She started off proceedings at the Dunbar Sports park complex with a far right three, five and nine, netting a total score of 17 in the first end.
Hardly the start any archer would fancy in a final and it was a opener even lower than the one in her semifinal shootoff win versus Candice Caesar where she began at 18.
But just like that match, it turned out to be more of a blip than anything else.
Her second end improved at 21 [8, 7, 6] but still wasn’t enough to turn the tide against Sternfeld who had dropped a 24 [9, 8, 7], the American aiming for her second Americas Cup gold following her mixed team success with Jordan White in Morelia.
