World Games archery preview #5: Compound men

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Event #5: Compound men

  • Number of athletes: 24
  • Number of nations: 16
  • Defending Champion: Reo Wilde
  • World Champion: Stephan Hansen

The one-to-beat

Although Reo Wilde hasn’t won a major outdoor international since 2013, the same year he walked away from the World Games in Cali with the individual and mixed team gold medals, as the only man to claim victory in this relatively-new discipline at the World Games he’s still the one to beat.

The 43-year-old has been a staple on the world circuit through two decades and continues to medal event-in, event-out.

The story

Stephan Hansen, 22, and Mike Schloesser, 23, are the top-two ranked compound men in the world. Hansen is the reigning World Champion, Schloesser the previous.

They are, undoubtedly, the favourites to take World Games gold – but, with little to choose between the pair, who arrives shooting hotter in Wroclaw?

The athletes

Country-by-country, all 24 compound men competing at the Wroclaw 2017 World Games.

Australia 

Archers: Pat Coghlan, Danie Oosthuizen

Intel: Known to be making a push for the worlds this year, Coghlan is a former world number two and Hyundai Archery World Cup bronze medallist who climbed the individual international podium for the first time in eight years with his third place at Shanghai 2017.

That event was 49-year-old Danie’s first world competition in our database. He finished 33rd individually and, with Pat and the Australian compound men’s team, ninth.

Short: Top eight.

Colombia 

Archers: Camilo Andres Cardona

Intel: The fourth-place finisher at the last World Archery Championships, Cardona is still searching for his first individual world-level medal. He’s grabbed a fair few as part of a formidable mixed pairing with long-time world number one Sara Lopez – and the two are likely to be one of the favourites in Wroclaw.

Short: Likely to leave Poland with a medal.

Croatia 

Archers: Domagoj Buden, Ivan Markes

Intel: Buden had a break-out 2016, finishing third in Antalya and fourth at the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final, and is still only 19 years of age. Markes emerged on the world stage the same year – and finished fourth at both the last outdoor and indoor European Championships – but has not yet medalled.

Short: Minimum one top eight.

Denmark 

Archers: Stephan Hansen, Martin Damsbo

Intel: The two strongest compound men from a team that’s flush with talent. Hansen is the reigning World Archery Champion and world number one, arriving in Wroclaw. Damsbo won the Hyundai Archery World Cup in 2013 and has podiumed consistently since making his international debut in 2002.

Short: Two strong contenders.

El Salvador 

Archers: Roberto Hernandez

Intel: One of the nicest guys on the circuit, Roberto has a host of medals on the American continent – and one of those was a bronze medal at the last World Games in Cali in 2013. He also won a World Cup stage in 2015 in Medellin but has, simply, not found individual success this side of the pond before. That’s got to break, at some point.

Short: To root for.

Spain 

Archers: Alberto Blazquez

Intel: A long-time international who has experience partnering Andrea Marcos (she won of the recent Salt Lake City stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup individually) in the mixed team – finishing third at the Europeans in 2016 together – and a real shot at taking a medal in pairs in Wroclaw.

Short: Spain’s time to shine.

France 

Archers: Dominique Genet, Sebastien Peineau

Intel: Peineau, the reigning indoor world champ, and Genet, the bronze medallist at the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final in 2015, have more than a couple of handfuls of international gongs between them.

Still recovering from an elbow injury that put him on the sidelines for the indoor season, Seb hasn’t quite returned to the form that had him at world number one as late as early 2016.

Dominique, meanwhile, didn’t win a match at the first two stages of this year’s Hyundai Archery World Cup – then passed two in Salt Lake.

If things come together, either – or both – could bag a big result.

Short: Medal within reach.

India 

Archers: Abhishek Verma

Intel: Of all the compound men shooting at these World Games, Verma has the second highest career average arrow score in matchplay – behind only Schloesser. 

It goes up from 9.67 in qualification to 9.76 in head-to-heads. (That may not sound like a lot, but it is.)

The world number 20 had his best season in 2015, when he won the last World Cup stage in Wroclaw and finished second at the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final.

Short: Avoid in the draw.

Iran 

Archers: Esmaeil Ebadi

Intel: Forever will Ebadi be known as the first man to take compound gold at the Asia Games. He won the event on the discipline’s introduction in Incheon in 2014.

In 2017, Esmaeil has finished seventh (Shanghai) and ninth (Antalya) on the World Cup circuit. It’s almost like he’s waiting for another big event to win…

Short: Has the tools.

Malaysia 

Archers: Mohd Juwaidi Mazuki, Khambeswaran Mohanaraja

Intel: Juwaidi and Mohanaraja finished second and fourth in the compound men’s competition at the Asia Cup in Bangkok in the spring, behind Ebadi, which was enough to claim two invitations to Wroclaw.

The former has experience in world medal matches, albeit at student events, while the latter made his world debut at stage one of the international circuit in Shanghai in 2017.

Short: Two match wins minimum.

Mexico 

Archers: Rodolfo Gonzalez

Intel: This 20-year-old made his first individual final on the Hyundai Archery World Cup stage at its most recent stage in Salt Lake City – despite not shooting at that level in two years – after coming second at the Pan Am Championships in 2016.

Gonzalez has an opportunity, in Wroclaw, to prove that the result was no fluke.

Short: Could cause trouble.

Namibia 

Archers: Louw Nel

Intel: Namibia’s team at this World Games is the archery team – as the compound events are the only competitions the nation is entered in to.

Louw has won medals in team events in Africa and has one Hyundai Archery World Cup stage worth of experience under his belt.

Short: Flying the flag.

Netherlands 

Archers: Peter Elzinga, Mike Schloesser

Intel: The world number two arriving in Wroclaw, Schloesser has, in his career (and over the 2017 season so far), a higher average arrow score – in both qualification and matchplay – than any other archer on the field.

His teammate is no slouch himself.

Elzinga is a multiple international medallist, last won a stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in 2014 and was second at the Final in its first ever year – 2006 – behind defending World Games Champion Wilde.

Short: Two strong contenders.

Poland 

Archers: Lukasz Przybylski

Intel: A regular student athlete over the past couple of years who started archery in 2012, 23-year-old Lukasz last shot a major senior international in 2014 at the World Cup stage in… Wroclaw.

The world number 148 will have home support in the very same city.

Short: Everything to gain.

South Africa 

Archers: Seppie Cilliers, Riaan Crowther

Intel: One of the best stories of 2016, Seppie finished second at the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final in Odense. It was South Africa and Africa’s first medal at the event.

His 2017 hasn’t been quite as successful, yet.

Riaan last shot international events in 2010, when he was a gold medallist on the circuit with the South African compound men’s team.

Short: A billing to live up to.

USA 

Archers: Reo Wilde, Kris Schaff

Intel: The most winning archer on the Wroclaw field, Wilde has been victorious in 76% of the matches he’s lined up for in his career (in our database). That’s more than Hansen’s 73% and Schloesser’s 71%. The reigning World Games Champion hasn’t won an event of this magnitude since 2013 – but has always remained in the mix and on the podium.

Schaff was, perhaps, a surprise qualifier after the US trials, making the two-man team ahead of regulars at World Archery events. His previous experience in the format has been, mainly, at indoor events – and he recently finished fourth at the Indoor Archery World Cup Final in Las Vegas.

In other words… Kris is something of an unknown.

Short: Reigning champion returns.

The prediction

The first archer from an Asian country to get a World Games medal was Oonuki Wataru in the recurve field archery event, the first archery competition in Wroclaw. 

He won’t be the last Asian archer to climb the podium this week.

The compound target archery competition at the Wroclaw 2017 World Games starts on 29 July next to Szczytnicki Park.

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