LAS VEGAS, Nevada - More than 3,500 archers have gathered in Las Vegas, Nevada for the NFAA's Vegas Shoot this weekend. Taking center stage today and tomorrow is also the fourth and Final stages of the 2017-2018 Indoor World Cup Series. With qualification today and tomorrow, and final head to head elimination matches tomorrow, competition is hot.
World Archery predicts a strong U.S. lineup in the Final, thinking that Brady Ellison, Paige Pearce Gore and Braden Gellenthien will take home three of the four gold finishes. Pearce Gore lit up the indoor circuit like a firework this year, winning gold and silver at the first two stages and earning a spot on Team USA for next week's World Archery Indoor Championships.
Gellenthien is the reigning outdoor Archery World Cup series champion has a shot at the indoor title after taking gold in Marrakesh stage one. Gellenthien sits third in the world cup rankings, just behind Kris Schaff. Schaff has been having quite a breakout year and picked up silver at stage two of the event, and gold last month on the third and most competitive leg of the event so far.
Schaff finished the day clean with a perfect score and commented: "Today was good, the first half I was really tentative on my release and letting down quite often, which I usually don't do. By the second half, I settled down a bit and started shooting good; I shot a 300, 28x today so it all came together."
While this stage of the World Cup overlaps the Vegas Shoot, the pressure to score a perfect 300 is much higher than any other leg of the event. Schaff added: "You're always under pressure down there. Normally, we can shoot 300s all day and just worry about X count, but here's it's always the first number that matters." On having his son in his large cheering section this weekend, Schaff was all smiles: "He gets to come out every once and a while, not as much as I'd like, it's definitely nice having him here."
Ellison was absent from the first two stages, but with a strong silver finish last month in Nimes, he is a contender to take home yet another world cup champion title. With a 295 in today's qualification, Ellison ranked 6th, with another 30 arrows to go tomorrow.
On the recurve side, Mackenzie Brown won silver in the 2016 Final here in Vegas, and is currently poised to earn a shot at the shoot down for the top eight tomorrow. With a 290 today, sitting in 9th, Brown was the highest ranking U.S. recurve archer in today's events.
Complete results from the competition are available here. For more, follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
< Back to All News
