Indoor World Cup leaders ride hot streaks into fourth stage and Final in Las Vegas

Reigning World Archery Field Champion from France, Jean-Charles VALLADONT dominated Singapore and Telford – the last two events – and took bronze at the first stage in Marrakesh. After coming a close second at the Indoor Archery World Cup Final last year, the 24-year-old recurve archer has been even more impressive during his 2013/14 campaign, and is nearly 40 points clear of his closest rival at the top of the series leaderboard.

VALLADONT is not the only archer on a hot streak. Erika JONES (USA), top-ranked compound woman in the world, won the Indoor Archery World Cup in 2011/12. She also won in Singapore and Telford this season – and won The Vegas Shoot last year. That pedigree, and a 20-point lead on Naomi JONES (GBR) in the Indoor World Cup rankings, make her a lock for the Finals – and dangerous in them.

Although world champion Mike SCHLOESSER (NED) holds the compound men’s series top rank at this stage in the season, his only podium finish was Telford – where he was beaten to gold by the current number two seed, fellow Dutch archer Peter ELZINGA.

ELZINGA’s performance in Britain was impassioned – and although he did not compete in Singapore, last year’s runner-up did take bronze in Marrakesh and come second at the Berlin Open at the end of 2013. In order: bronze (Marrakesh), silver (Berlin), gold (Telford)… what comes next in Vegas?

Poised to repeat?

Three of the four defending champions from 2012/2013 are in a position to reclaim their titles. United States archers Brady ELLISON and Braden GELLENTHIEN sit in fifth in the recurve and compound men’s series rankings (respectively) heading into the tournament. But while GELLENTHIEN won Marrakesh, ELLISON has yet to pick up an Indoor Archery World Cup podium this year.

JEON Sungeun, last season’s star for Korean archery squad LH (a housing company that support the professional team), is currently on course to qualify for the Final in second place and began her 2013 campaign with gold in Singapore – but was outdone in Telford by teammate KIM Yu Mi. KIM equalled the ranking round world record in qualification then won the tournament on a second tiebreaker 10 against another of the LH team, PARK Se Hui.

Disrupt dominance

Although JEON, KIM, PARK and, fourth squad member, KIM Min Jong lead the recurve women’s leaderboard entering Vegas, Olympic silver medallist Aida ROMAN (MEX) will challenge the Koreans. ROMAN lost out to KIM in the Telford semifinals, but beat defending Indoor World Cup Champion JEON in the bronze medal match.

Follow the event

The Indoor Archery World Cup concludes after the second day of competition in Las Vegas. Series ranking points for the fourth stage are awarded on the 60-arrow scores. The top 16 archers from each division in the series leaderboard are then invited to compete in the head-to-head Indoor Archery World Cup Final that Saturday evening, which will be broadcast on World Archery TV.

Discover more about The Vegas Shoot, read the latest competitor list – or check out the Indoor Archery World Cup rankings in the lead up to the fourth stage and series Final.

World Archery Communication