Ranked number one in the world, and unbeaten on this season’s indoor archery circuit, Erika JONES reclaimed the World Cup Final title in Las Vegas, while fellow Team USA archers Crystal GAUVIN, Braden GELLENTHIEN, Levi MORGAN and Brady ELLISON collected four additional medals for the U.S.
After picking up gold medals in Singapore and Telford, JONES had a commanding lead in the series rankings heading into the weekend. She was strong, not dominant, during the two-day World Cup stage at The Vegas Shoot, but improved with each match of the Final.
Eventually facing GAUVIN – another United States archer and winner at Marrakesh – for compound women’s gold, world number one JONES was clinical. She shot nine straight 10s in front of the burgeoning Vegas crowd, and reclaimed the Indoor Archery World Cup title she last held in 2011 with a 6-nil set point victory.
“Happy with how I came back from my struggle yesterday,” said JONES on her Facebook page before taking to the Finals field. After the win, she added: “I shot good! Shooting in front of a huge home crowd is awesome.”
Italy’s Matteo FISSORE shot his way through match wins in the quarterfinals and semis, but found Rick VAN DER VEN (NED) waiting in the final. It was another Marrakesh match replay that went exactly the same way: VAN DER VEN taking the top spot, 6-2. Meanwhile, Team USA’s ELLISON, who fell after a tough loss to van der Ven in the semifinals, shot a perfect 120 – four sets of 30 points each – to claim the recurve men’s bronze medal.
The Korean archery team made a clean sweep of the recurve women’s podium, and produced their third different winner in three stages. Last year’s Indoor Archery World Cup Champion JEON Sungeun won Singapore, KIM Yu Mi took gold at Telford – and this time it was PARK Se Hui’s turn.
The compound men’s ranking was murky before Vegas – and that opened the door for Sebastien PEINEAU’s hot day. He beat Dutch archers Mike SCHLOESSER then Ruben BLEYENDAAL with 10s in one-arrow shoot-offs, took out Levi MORGAN in the semis (USA) and was better than defending Indoor World Cup Champion Braden GELLENTHIEN for gold. MORGAN went on to claim his second consecutive bronze medal after edging out USA’s Paul TEDFORD at the recent European Archery Festival.
Watch the Indoor Archery World Cup Finals in full – as well as the Finals of the Vegas Shoot – by heading over to World Archery TV. Catch up on the full results, and check the photos from The Vegas Shoot and Indoor World Cup Finals.
More at: http://www.teamusa.org/
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