GWANGJU, Korea – Steve Marsh, in the second Archery World Cup stage of his rookie season, is already making a name for himself, booking his first appearance on the big stage in the elite compound men’s final four.
Conditions have been tricky the past few days in Korea and today was no different; competition started out with challenging winds that died down a bit as the day wore on. For the 26 year old, ranked 12th in qualification (up from 31st at his debut event in Antalya last month), finding his rhythm quickly was critical.
After winning a 144-144 shoot off over Iran’s Hamzeh Nekouei, Marsh went on to post field-topping scores as he breezed his way through the brackets: “I started out a little rocky; one arrow shoot off, won that one, then shot 147, 149, 149 so feeling good after that first one,” commented Marsh. “I’ve been working for this for years, I’m so, so excited about it.”
Marsh upset No. 5 Emirican Haney of Turkey in the round of 16 before taking out No. 4 Mathias Fullerton of Denmark in the quarterfinals. Marsh will make his first finals stage appearance this weekend in the semifinals against top seed and World No. 1, Mike Schloesser of the Netherlands.
6th seed Braden Gellenthein made a surprise early exit in the second round, coming up just short in the final end 147-148 against Mexico’s Rodrigo Olvera. Steve Anderson, who announced earlier this week that this would be his final world cup stage as a professional archer, finished his run in the first round 148-145 to Italy’s Federico Pagnoni.
On the women’s field, Linda Ochoa-Anderson, who seeded 8th in qualification, also had a surprise upset in the second round, going out 146-143 to Irain’s Geesa Bybordy. Raegan Bender posted a 141 to Chinese Taipei’s Yi-Hsuan Chen’s 147 in the first round.
Earlier today, the USA recurve men’s team of Brady Ellison, Joonsuh Oh and Matthew Requa upset Chinese Taipei in the round of 16 on a shoot off, then made a strong run against 3rd seed Italy in the quarterfinals, coming up just short in the final set to finish 6th overall.
The recurve women’s team of Casey Kaufhold, Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez and Erin Mickelberry went out in the first round 6-2, also to Italy.
Competition continues tomorrow with mixed team matches through the semifinals and recurve eliminations through the quarterfinals. Results are available at archery.sport. The finals will stream live this weekend on the Olympic Channel. Photos courtesy of World Archery.
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