IPSWICH archer Nicky Hunt clinched a gold medal for England this morning at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

The 25-year-old Kesgrave resident, along with team mates Danielle Brown and Nichola Simpson, took the gold in the women’s team compound event, beating Canada 232-229 in the final.

Having beaten Malaysia earlier in the semi-finals earlier in the day, England came up against an in-form Canada in the final at the Yamuna Sports Complex.

In the closest of matches, both sides shot superbly as the lead changed hands on a number of occasions. England were one point behind at the halfway stage, but clawed it back to leave Hunt requiring a nerve-jangling eight points from the very last arrow to claim the gold medal.

And cool as the proverbial cucumber, Ipswich’s world number one shot a perfect 10 to finish it off in style. Such was the level of England’s performance that they fell just one point shy of setting a new world record.

“This has been a dream of mine for four years so it’s absolutely fantastic,” said Hunt, who has had to take unpaid leave from her job as a physiotherapist for the Suffolk Primary Care Trust to compete in India.

“Archery hasn’t been at the Commonwealth games since 1982 so it has been fantastic to show off our sport to the world and hopefully people have enjoyed it.”

Hunt will now be aiming to make it a double medal goal haul when she takes to the knock-out stages of the individual women’s compound competition on Saturday.

Having breezed through qualification at the start of the week, Hunt faces a Malaysian opponent in the quarter-final. Should she win that she could well then face England team mate Daniella Brown in the final four.

Brown, a 22-year-old law graduate, suffers from reflex sympathetic dystrophy which causes chronic pain in her feet. Having won gold for Great Britain at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, she is the first Paralympian to represent England at a Commonwealth Games.

– Buy tomorrow’s paper for a full interview with Nicky.