MEDELLIN, Colombia – The 2019 Archery World Cup season kicked off today in Colombia. Following a rainy practice day, the morning saw near perfect conditions for qualification as archers gear up for an intense season. With the first three world cups spanning just five short weeks, archers need to be on point early and firing on all cylinders right out the gate.
The top three recurve men tied with impressive 692s, with USA’s Brady Ellison taking the top seed on 10-count. Despite the high score, Ellison has seen better in recent weeks and held higher expectations for his performance: “It’s not bad. It’s not what I wanted, especially in this weather, but for how I felt today I’m pretty happy with it,” Ellison told World Archery. Ellison missed practice yesterday after coming down with a fever. “I really thought with the weather today that someone would have broken the world record. There was no arrows that needed to be aimed off. I’m not surprised that there’s that many high scores.”
Jack Williams also had a strong start, popping into the 340s with a 343 front-half. Qualifying 12th with a 678, Williams is also looking ahead to a solid season. Matt Requa’s 662 ranked him 27th and put the team in good stead with a 3rd place qualification. With the World Championships just around the corner and Olympic quota slots on the table, this is an encouraging showing.
In her world cup debut, Casey Kaufhold had a few struggles in her first half, but made a dominant showing in the second half with a 331, the 5th highest 2nd round score on the recurve women’s field. Kaufhold’s 643 ranked her 17th ahead of Mackenzie Brown and Erin Mickelberry, who ranked 25th and 27th respectively. With great importance on the team round this year, the U.S. women ranked 8th, putting them in good contention for Olympic qualification later this summer.
Kaufhold and Ellison’s combined 1335 put them just one point behind Italy in the mixed team qualification for a 3rd place rank.
Alexis Ruiz came in hot in her World Cup debut with a smoking 358 first half. Ruiz qualified 6th with a 699, just ahead of Sophia Strachan and Jamie Van Natta’s 696 and 692, ranking them 9th and 11th respectively. The team qualified 2nd, behind Colombia’s new team world record.
The compound men’s bracket has often been the tightest and most competitive division on the field, with just a few points separating the top 10. This event was no different, but the U.S. names topping the list were newcomers Matt Sullivan and Tate Morgan. Joining the dynasty of U.S. compound men, these strong players qualified 2nd and 6th with 711 and 703 each. Reigning Indoor and Outdoor Final winner Kris Schaff ranked 13th with a 699, just ahead of Braden Gellenthien’s 697. The team sits solidly in first.
Ruiz and Sullivan qualified 3rd for the compound mixed team event with a 1410, just 5 points off the top spot.
To follow the competition, scores are live at www.worldarchery.org. Competition resumes with early eliminations through Friday. The medal finals will be available live this weekend on NBC’s Olympic Channel at www.olympicchannel.com/live.
Some information attributed to World Archery Communications. Photo by World Archery.
< Back to All News
