Andrews, Foulsham, MacPherson and Willcox collected second bronze in Finland
Ben Andrews, Jacob Foulsham, Steven MacPherson and Joshua Willcox teamed up to claim a bronze medal yesterday in Finland. They formed the GBR 1 team who competed in the men’s event in a field of thirty-one.
Ranked fourth, they beat Norway 1 40-33 in the round of 32 before going on to beat GBR 2 45-38 and Estonia 1 by the same score to reach the semi-finals. Italy just edged them 44-41 in the semi-finals, forcing them into a third place play-off against USA 2.
The American team led 15-11 after three legs but Willcox, Andrews and Foulsham (who came on to replace MacPherson,) outscored their opponents in the middle three legs to draw level at 30-30 going into the crucial final bouts. Willcox knicked the seventh leg, putting GBR 1 35-34 up, only for Hansen to snatch the lead back for the Americans – 40-39 – at the end of the penultimate bout. Andrews anchored for Great Britain and dominated to take GBR 1 to a 45-42 victory.
A thrilled team spoke shortly before collecting their medals, saying, “It was amazing. We’re almost there and we will train more as a team. Italy was the hardest match but the Americans were tough too. A big thanks to Kenny. He’s a great coach and he’s been amazing.”
In the women’s team event, GBR 1 (Taylor Foxwell-Moss, Avery Louis, Jacqueline Oien and Eleanor Taylor) just lost 45-44 to Sweden in the quarterfinals, eventually finishing in sixth place.
There were a number of lower age group events held in Espoo alongside this cadet event where Eva Reston claimed a bronze medal in the girls under-14 event and Cador Beautyman placed sixth in the Mixed under-12 event.
View the complete results here.
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