Underdog Kiwi team in World Cup first

MARK DWYER/Taranaki Daily News

GOLDEN ARCHER: Mandy McGregor greets family and friends at New Plymouth Airport yesterday after arriving home from the archery World Cup series event in Turkey.

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A chilled-out Kiwi approach has earned New Plymouth archer Mandy McGregor the country's first gold at an archery World Cup series event.

McGregor arrived home from Turkey with giant cup in hand yesterday and about 50 boisterous supporters cheered her at New Plymouth Airport.

Even though she had had no sleep in 25 hours, she still wore a huge smile across her face. She said she and team-mates Linda Lainchbury and Anne Mitchell had decided "just to go out and have fun" after a bad start to their first match in the compound womens' event.

"I think the other teams possibly underestimated us," she said.

"We just went through winning by one or two points and by the time we got to the finals thought `hey this could be pretty good!' ... It just seemed natural."

The big win was beating top seed Venezuela on the way to the final against Greece, which McGregor said proved New Zealand was an "unknown quantity" on the archery scene.

"It's really good for archery and for New Zealand.

"This means hopefully some recognition for the sport."

The first spot of recognition for McGregor was from Howie Tamati, of the Taranaki Elite Athletes Foundation.

Tamati promised McGregor $2500 towards her next bid, the archery world championships in Korea in September.

McGregor said this would go a good way to the estimated $6000 needed and her ultimate goal, the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India.

First though, there was finishing off the bottle of Moet champagne nestled in a Duty Free bag.

"That's for the celebration," she said.

- © Fairfax NZ News