CHURCH Stretton archer Alison Williamson narrowly missed out on Olympic gold when she lost in the women's 70 metres individual semi-final in Athens on Wednesday.

But her disappointment was set aside a few moments later when in defeating fellow losing semi-finalist Shu Chi Yuan of Taiwan, she won the bronze medal.

After hitting the sporting headlines earlier this summer when Church Stretton School won the girls' national Coca Cola Football Cup, the town hit the world stage this week when Alison challenged the world's best for gold.

And it was only a narrow defeat in the semi-final match against No 1 seed Sung Hyun Park of Korea, that thwarted the Shropshire teacher's ambitions.

Alison had earlier battled through the first round beating 50-year-old American, Janet Dykman, 147 - 121.

Then, after beating Sayoko Kawauchi of Japan 154 -150pts to reach the last 16 on Tuesday, Alison, a qualified primary school teacher, beat Juanjuan Shang of China, the No 5 seed 165-161pts early on Wednesday morning to qualify for the quarter-finals where she went on to beat another Chinese archer, Ying He 109-89.

But in the semi-final against the No 1 seed Sung Hyun Park of Korea, Alison lost 110-100.

Britain's top archer Alison is the daughter of keen archers Tom and Sue Wiliamson, of Church Stretton. Tom is president of the local Long Mynd Archers and Sue is secretary.

Prior to the Athens Olympics, Alison had been a member of the British senior archery team since 1990. In the 1992 Olympics she finished in eighth place but in 1999 won the silver medal at the World championships.

At her parents home at Chelmick, near Church Stretton, Sue Williamson said the phones hadn't stopped ringing with congratulations at Alison's astonishing success.

"Naturally, we are so delighted with her bronze in Athens. It has been fantastic," said her mother. "We will arrange a special party for her when she returns."

And there was praise also from the community.

"I think she has done magnificently well," said Church Stretton county councillor James Gibson. "She is a local girl who went to our local school and plays in our local archery club and the news is fantastic."

" Her last match was very difficult but she held her nerve. It goes to show that if you hold your nerve then you can achieve anything. I'm sure the whole town is very proud of her.