Silver medal for Lothersdale's Danielle (From Keighley News)

Silver medal for Lothersdale's Danielle

3:10pm Sunday 23rd September 2012 in Sport

Lothersdale archer Dani Brown has won a silver medal at the World Cup Grand Final in Tokyo.

She defeated Italy's Marcella Tonioli and the USA's Christie Colin, before losing to another AmericanJamie Van Natta, in the gold medal match by a single points.

It completes a phenomenal month for Brown who won her second successive Paralympic Games gold medal in London.

The first Paralympian ever to take part in a World Cup Grand final, Brown becomes the fourth GB archer to win a medal at this event.

"I'm so pleased that I managed to shoot better scores than at the Paralympics," said Brown.

"I'm really happy with this medal, I didn't know I would be coming here until a week ago, so I didn't expect anything at all - but to come home with a medal is brilliant.

"It was easier to shoot here than at the Paralympics. The competition level was obviously higher here, but there was no expectations on me at all. I'm really happy."

The final with Van Natta – who won the title for the second time - was a nail-biting encounter that went right to the last arrow.

Van Natta led by a point after the first end, thanks to a 10-10-9 to Brown’s 10-9-9, and still led by the same margin after a 9-10-9 to Brown’s -9-10.

The lead stretched to three points after end three, when Brown shot an eight with her first arrow. She then scored two nines, but Van Natta scored 9-10-9 to strengthen her advantage.

It remained three points after the fourth end (9-10-10 to 10-10-9), but Van Natta was not quite home and dry. Brown scored a nine to Van Natta's eight to narrow the gap to two points. Both then scored a nine, and after Brown's final arrow was a 10, the American archer needed a nine to take the title.

A nine it was, Brown was beaten by just a point, but gaining a silver medal was a fantastic effort, proving yet again that not only is she the world's top female Para compound archer, but one of the world's top compounders overall.

Earlier, Brown - who had a late call up to the prestigious tournament after Venezuela's Olga Bosch pulled out last week - had a slice of good fortune in her quarter-final match against Tonioli.

The Italian had led throughout their match, but she failed to shoot her penultimate arrow, and despite two 10s, Browntook full advantage and a perfect 10-10-10 finish gave her victory by 142-136.

That set up a semi-final against Colin, last year's Grand Final silver medallist in Istanbul. The match turned in the third end, when the American shot a seven, and Brown pounced to take a four points advantage. Colin pulled back two points in the fourth end, but Brown finished with 9-10-10 to Colin's 9-9-9, to secure her place in the final 140-136. Colin went on to take the bronze medal.