ANTALYA, Turkey – If the Recurve Sunday finals at World Cup Antalya are any indicator of what is to come at next month’s World Archery Championships, Team USA is looking sharp.
Brady Ellison is in the greatest shooting form we’ve seen in a long time; and he’s calling it a build year with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games right around the corner. The World Archery Championships will be the USA’s first chance to secure quota spots for the Games if we secure a top eight finish in the team competition.
Ellison and World Championships teammates Thomas Stanwood and Jack Williams are a strong trio. They qualified third and in early matches, never had an arrow outside of the yellow. In the bronze final in Antalya against the Ukraine, an arrow in the 8-ring gave Ukraine the first set, but then the U.S. team kept it golden. Ellison’s arrows never left the 10-ring over four sets. A 6-2 victory gave the U.S. recurve men’s team its first podium finish since 2016.
This also marks the first world cup podium finish for both Stanwood and Williams and should give the team good confidence and momentum headed into the World Championships.
With an individual gold and bronze already under his belt this season, Ellison is the only recurve archer in the world to make all three individual finals at the three world cups so far this season, a feat we have not seen from him since 2011. He punched his ticket to the World Cup Final at stage one in Medellin, but he commented that he still really wants this win. Shooting against the Netherlands’ Steve Wijler, Ellison predicted a good match and that it would take a 30 to win.
He was correct; Ellison took the first two sets with 29s to lead 4-0, and then with a perfect 30, he clinched another victory.
Complete results from the competition are available at www.worldarchery.org. Photos by World Archery.
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