Ellison, Anderson cap Dublin with individual wins

Brady Ellison successfully defended his recurve men’s World Archery Field Champion title and Steve Anderson secured compound men’s gold by a point at the 25th World Archery Field Championships, held just outside of Dublin, Ireland.

“I’m super excited right now. I wanted to shoot a little better in the final just for me personally. Shot left the whole entire match. Mistake – moved my sight too much on the practice field, but it doesn’t really matter,” said Brady. 

“I shot good enough to win. I shot a decent score.”

Ellison had seven points more over the four-target finals course than Germany’s two-time winner in the event, Sebastian Rohrberg. The final score: 59-52.

“I think that this is an awesome finals field. It’s what field should be. You couldn’t ask for a prettier backdrop with the cliff and everything. It looked great on TV and just awesome for us, too. Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Brady added.

Ellison’s USA teammate Steve Anderson took down World Archery Champion from Copenhagen 2015, Dane Stephan Hansen, in the compound men’s final. The pair were even after two targets, then Anderson drew a point ahead after the third, which held to the end.

It was Steve’s first world medal – and gold. He, like Ellison, has been a staple of the US target team in recent years. It’s no coincidence, explained Brady, that the top States athletes excel in both disciplines.

“Field brings strength. I feel like you have to be a lot stronger to shoot field. You have to pay attention in field. You have to be stronger in field. You have to be smarter in field. You have to work harder in field,” he said.

“Target teaches you consistency. Target teaches you how to group, how to shoot well and how to make perfect shots.”

“You spend all season shoot good, shooting a lot of distance, and then you step into field and the shot is there, and then you have to learn how to shoot field. The same thing, when you get done shooting a field tournament, you get back shooting on the flat and it’s easy.”

Earlier in the year, Brady said he’d found something else in his shooting to find the extra points that pushed him to a personal best on the ranking round, an Olympic bronze medal, that fourth World Cup title and another world field crown.

Would he finally reveal what that something else was?

“Her,” he said, pointing at his wife, Toja Ellison (née Cerne), an archer for Slovenia. The pair married in mid-2016.  “I think having my wife with me and being able to push me and shoot all the time.”

The 2016 World Archery Field Championships run 27 September to 2 October in Dublin, Ireland.