Athlete of the Year: JONES Named Compound Women’s Winner for 2nd Time

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Another highly-consistent Archery World Cup season that included three stage wins in the team events and an individual silver – for the second year in a row – at the circuit’s Final was enough to win the USA’s Erika JONES a second Athlete of the Year title.

She bagged 31% of the combined vote – an average of the expert poll and the 20,000 votes submitted by members of the archery public.

The winners were announced at World Archery’s inaugural Gala at Las Vegas earlier this month. Here are the full results…

1) Erika JONES (USA) – 31%

After being named World Archery’s Female Athlete of the Year for 2013, the reigning Indoor World Cup Champion defended two titles in Las Vegas in February 2015: the indoor circuit crown and her Athlete of the Year Award!

(In 2013 it was presented to one male, one female rather than all four categories.)

In 2014, the US archer climbed the Archery World Cup team podium at every stage of the season, winning three team golds along the way. Individually, she set a new 18-metre qualification record and made the World Cup Final, where she lost the gold medal match to Colombia's Sara LOPEZ…

2) Sara LOPEZ (COL) – 25%

…who sat six percentage points behind JONES after the Athlete of the Year vote.

The fifteen-arrow match world record holder and world number one twice finished second at World Cup stages in 2014: Shanghai at the start of the season, Wroclaw at the end. In Lausanne, she clinched her first individual title of the year and inherited the World Cup Champion crown from teammate Alejandra USQUIANO.

At home in the Americas, she had an up-and-down record – before closing out the year with individual gold, team and mixed team silver at the Central American and Caribbean Games. 

It’s also the second time in a row Sara’s been runner up for this Athlete of the Year award!

3) CHOI Bomin (KOR) – 20%

Team world champ in 2007, recurve archer CHOI disappeared until 2013 – when she re-emerged as a compound archer. Her first season back on the circuit was okay, but 2014 was better: gold in Shanghai was a great start to her year but he real success came at the end. 

Bomin won double gold in Incheon at the Asian Games.

She’s now ranked fourth in the world and will an athlete worth watching in the upcoming 2015 season.

4) Toja CERNE (SLO) – 13%

Second at Medellin 2014, Toja was bronze medallist at the world student championships in July. After qualifying for the World Cup Final, she lost a bronze medal match to Russia’s Natalia AVDEEVA. 

She was nominated for this Athlete of the Year shortlist, though, because of her complete command over the Zagreb 2014 World Archery Field Championships: she led the event from start to finish.

5) Cansu Ecem COSKUN (TUR) – 11%

Turkey’s COSKUN shocked Sara LOPEZ in the final of Wroclaw 2014. She beat the world number one in the last end and produced the biggest victory leap of the season. (Spectators swear she cleared at least target height from standing!) 

Cansu also had team bronze at the European Championships, in her only second international season.

Agree or disagree with the final Athlete of the Year 2014: Compound Women’s results? Tell us on Twitter: @worldarchery