CHULA VISTA, California – USA Archery is set to nominate a team for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and the 2022 World Archery Para Championships tomorrow at the conclusion of Stage 3 of the Trials. All divisions except the compound men open began Trials in Florida last month. The compound open men, delayed per COVID-19 mitigation protocols, have caught up over the last two days and all groups are ready for tomorrow’s final nomination shoot.
To qualify for the Games, a nation must first earn quota spots, and then in the U.S., the archers compete in these Trials to determine who will fill those spots. The U.S. has secured quota spots for the Tokyo Games in the compound men’s open division (3 spots), recurve men’s open (2 spots), recurve women’s open (1 spot) and W1 women (1 spot), with one final chance to qualify spots for the compound women’s open and W1 men on the horizon.
To fill these quota spots, archers must compete in the Trials as set forth by USA Archery. Headed into Stage 3, only the top 8 archers in each division are moving forward. Tomorrow’s competition will feature a third 72-arrow round, followed by round robin matches, where each archer will shoot one match against each other archer in their division. Placement, scores and match wins will garner Trials points that are accumulated over all three stages. Nomination will follow total cumulative point totals.
Over the past two days, Paralympic medalist Matt Stutzman topped the compound men’s open division with solid margins, scoring a 700 today to easily pick up maximum bonus points. Andre Shelby, the reigning Paralympic Champion, and Ben Thompson, the reigning World Para Champion are sitting second and third. This trio set the team world record at the last World Archery Para Championships. Rio 2016 Paralympian KJ Polish and Lance Thornton are still in contention, not far behind in the standings. Jeff Sena, Andrew Pike and Jeremy Velez will also continue to Stage 3.
Recapping last month’s standings, Paralympian and World silver medalist Eric Bennett has a commanding lead in the recurve men’s open scores, and Kevin Mather, Timothy Palumbo and Michael Lukow are close in the battle for the second spot for Tokyo. National record holder Emma Rose Ravish will be tough to catch in the women’s bracket.
Lia Coryell and Eric Lindsay are the sole competitors in the W1 divisions and have those on lock. Martha Chavez also has a hefty lead for the compound women open, ahead of Erev King and Wendy Gardner.
Standings will update live at www.betweenends.com. News will be available at www.usarchery.org and on USA Archery’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Follow photo coverage here.
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