Wijler upsets Ellison in Nimes recurve men’s final

Steve Wijler, Kris Schaff, Natalia Avdeeva and Kim Surin took gold medals at the third stage of the 2017/18 Indoor Archery World Cup in Nimes, France, jumping up the rankings and putting themselves in qualifying positions for the Final in Las Vegas.

“I’m just having a great weekend here and I didn’t expect anything from it. I was really happy to be in the final against Brady, because he’s an icon of the sport, and shoot against him,” said Wijler, who made his debut for the Netherlands at stage one of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Shanghai in 2017, and won gold.

“I just try to have fun in archery and do my technique. If I have a fun day, then it’s fine.”

The match came down to the last set. Wijler shot 10-10-10; Ellison 9*-10-10 – and the first arrow was ruled out.

“A bad shot, I was aiming really well and I wanted it to go off and I tried to force it. It went off and it could have been there and it could not have been,” said Ellison. “That’s perfectly fine, but I shot a bad match.”

After missing the first two stages of the season, the normally ever-present Ellison still collected valuable ranking points in the race to the Indoor Archery World Cup Final in Las Vegas.

“It’s getting to the point, now, that in recurve men you can’t miss. It’s a can’t miss game and it’s getting exciting,” Brady added.

The recurve women’s final was a rematch of stage two in Bangkok.

That final went Sim Yeji’s way, but this one landed in Kim Surin’s pocket. It wasn’t an easy contest, the pair splitting every single set with scores of 29, 29, 30, 29 and 30 points. It ended in a tiebreaker – and a 10 from Kim.

“I trained hard [after Bangkok] so that I could win here,” said Kim. “I couldn’t have imagined the crowd here, but I was honoured to be there and compete with my [Hyundai Mobis] teammate.”

Natalia Avdeeva beat Yesim Bostan, 143-141, to take the maximum available ranking points in the compound women’s event.

“I like Nimes,” she said. “It’s been used for big events like the world championships. The feeling here is… wow… and I’m so happy to have won. I hope I’m lucky in Vegas.”

Kris Schaff’s 147 was too much for Mike Schloesser and a 143-point performance in the compound men’s gold medal match. Schloesser said he entered the arena with too much tension.

“A tournament like this, there’s so much level at it. If you shoot at the wrong time a nine, that’s it,” explained the world number three Dutchman, who seeded first.

Schaff secured his first four international medals in 2017 and has quickly risen to the top of an ultra-competitive division. He spoke with confidence: 

“It’s finally making it there. I was nervous and I would always mess up when I was right there. Since I finally broke over that little hump, it’s been steady.”

The Indoor Archery World Cup continues in Las Vegas in two weeks, with the first two days of the Vegas Shoot acting as stage four of the circuit, and the Indoor Archery World Cup Final taking place in the evening of the second day of competition.

The third stage of the 2017/18 Indoor Archery World Cup takes place in Nimes, France on 19-21 January 2018.

Biographies
Compétitions