NIMES, France - Indoor World Cup Nimes elimination matches this afternoon determined who will shoot for medals in the finals matches tomorrow. USA archers will have a shot at recurve and compound men's gold, compound men's bronze, and four compound juniors will also vie for medals.
Brady Ellison (Globe, Arizona) made his Indoor World Cup season debut in qualification yesterday, ranking third. In the first round, Ellison faced Spain's Veira Moreno and took the match to a 5-5 tie. Both shot 10s, but Ellison's was closer to the center and he advanced. Warmed up, Ellison came back in the second round with three sets of 30 to take a 6-2 win over Italy's Frangili, and then posted five straight perfect sets of 30 to take a 7-3 quarterfinal win over tough opponent, Gye of Korea. Staying golden, Ellison clinched a 6-4 victory over Korea's Kim in the semifinals, with only one arrow out of the 10, to shoot for gold tomorrow against 16th seed, Steve Wijler of the Netherlands.
6th seed and sole U.S. woman's recurve entrant Mackenzie Brown (Flint, Texas) crushed a 6-0 first round victory, then took a shoot off win with a 10 in the quarterfinals against Italy's Rebagliati, but fell in the quarterfinals to 3rd seed Kim of Korea 6-2.
With just 9 points separating the top 32 compound men in qualification, the head to head matchups were intense and pressure-filled. Of the 32 archers to make the cut, 11 were repping the stars and stripes, including 8 in the top half. Kris Schaff (Billings, Montana) climbed from a 10th place seed to earn a shot at gold tomorrow. After a 148-147 first round matchup, Schaff had a clean 150-149 victory over Denmark's Hansen and then another clean round to outshoot 2nd seed, USA's Braden Gellenthien (Hudson, Massachusetts) in the quarterfinals. A 149-147 semifinal win over Turkey's Emaagacli.
On a strong upset run, 21st seed Paul Tedford (Great Falls, Montana) took a 147-147 tie in the first round to a shoot off win over Italy's Della Stua, followed by a 15-148 victory over Italy's Sergio Pagni. In the quarterfinals, Tedford faced Spain's Ramon Lopez, who upset 4th seed Shawnn Vincent (Mt Vernon, Washington) just before in a 149-148 decision. It was then Tedford who took the win 149-148 over Lopez to face top seed, Mike Schloesser of the Netherlands in the semifinals. Schloesser took the win 150-148 and will face Schaff for the gold, while Tedford will take on Emaagacli for the bronze.
Meanwhile, 8th and 9th seeds Jesse Broadwater (Ellenton, Florida) and Dave Cousins (Standish, Maine) won their first matches to go head to head in the second round. Cousins dropped two 9s in the second end and Broadwater was clean until the last end, where he dropped just one 9 to take the win 149-148. It was Schloesser who then stopped Broadwater in the quarterfinals with a 149-148 win. 22nd and 26th seeds Tate Morgan (Billings, Montana) and Jesse Clayton (Powell Butte, Oregon) faced first round losses, and Reo Wilde (Pocatello, Idaho) was upset in the first match 144-143 by Lopez.
Of the three U.S. compound women to make the cut to eliminations, Paige Pearce Gore (Red Bluff, California) and Cassidy Cox (Albuquerque, New Mexico) were following successful runs at the first two stages of the series, but along with Dahlia Crook (Piedmont, Kansas), all three were stopped short in the 1/8th round. In a super close match, 14th seed Cox and 3rd seed Marcos of Spain went to a 145-145 tie, where both shot 10s, but Marcos was more precise and deemed the winner. Gore and Denmark's Sarah Sonnichsen also had a close matchup that went to a 148-146 decision.
The Nimes tournament also features a junior competition, where several USA archers are competing for valuable international competition experience, and to bring home some hardware. Compound men Carson Sapp (Cairo, Georgia), Connor Sears (Bowie, Texas) and Blaze Ruffing (Hubertus, Wisconsin) locked down the top three qualification slots. The trio shot strong through matches, winning everything until they hit the semifinals. Top seed Sears was upset 149-148 by Slovenia's Modic. Ruffing and Sapp went head to head in the other semifinal match and Sapp took the win 148-147 to face Modic for gold. The USA boys, Sears and Ruffing will go head to head for bronze.
On the women's side, Sadie Tesch (Rapid City, South Dakota) stayed strong from a 3rd place qualification rank to win all matches with safe margins until the semifinals. There, she met Italy's Roner, who took an early lead and won 141-139, leaving Tesch to contend for the bronze tomorrow. Daisy Lente (Albuquerque, New Mexico), who qualified 13th, was stopped in the first match 146-141.
Competition resumes tomorrow with finals matches for all divisions. Complete results can be found atwww.worldarchery.org.For more, follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Photo: World Archery.
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