Danielle clinches gold in Beijing

It will be party time for the Brown family when daughter Danielle returns from the Paralympic archery competition clutching a gold medal.

The 20-year-old student was due back in Lothersdale today (Thursday) with sport’s highest accolade - only five years after taking up the discipline.

She outshot Japan’s Chieko Kemiya in the final, scoring 112 to 98 and hitting six bullseyes against her opponent’s one.

Afterwards, Danielle said: “I don’t think it’s sunk in yet but I’m really happy. I had one dodgy arrow but otherwise it was a good match.”

The semi-finals of the individual compound open competition saw a battle of the Britons when Danielle took on teammate Mel Clarke, who clinched the bronze medal.

She outshot Clarke 113 to 107, hitting six maximums to Clarke’s two.

“We knew the chances of meeting each other were high,” said Danielle, a member of Aire Valley Archers who shoots at South Craven School, Cross Hills, and at St Ives, Bingley.

“It was pretty tough knocking my teammate out but you just have to go out and shoot,” she added.

The good news was broken to her mum Elizabeth, dad Duncan and sisters 18-year-old Helen and 15-year-old Georgina in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Georgina, an able bodied archer, is following in her sister’s footsteps and is to shoot the compound bow for Great Britain in the Junior World Championships in Turkey. Mrs Brown said: “Her telephone call woke me up at about 4am. I’d just got to sleep because Danielle’s dog Heidi had kept me awake.

“Her sister Helen came in and said ‘mum you have a Paralympic gold medallist daughter’.

“I rushed downstairs to the phone – there was so much noise in the background – it was euphoria; so exciting.”

Mrs Brown added that it had not been easy for Danielle because she had to shoot against her teammate in the semi-final. “That was tough. But we are so proud of her,” she said.

Danielle, who is the current world champion in the individual compound (open) event, broke her own world record in the earlier Paralympic rounds to finish top of the rankings with a score of 676 from 72 arrows.

Danielle suffers from reflex sympathetic dystrophy which affects her ability to stand.

She took up archery because of her fascination with movies such as Lord of the Rings in which there are scenes of fencing and shooting with the longbow.

Source

September 18, 2008