Eyler, Ruiz take championship titles at Vegas Shoot

The compound open championship shootdown came down to a face-off between Bob Eyler and Lucky Dog Christopher Perkins, as US archers Eyler and Alexis Ruiz took the top two titles at the 52nd edition of The Vegas Shoot, which concluded on 11 January 2018.

“Dream come true. Archery-related, that’s my dream come true,” said first-time winner Eyler, who hadn’t shot the event for six years.

“If there’s any tournament I could choose to win, this would be it.”

Eight compound men shot perfect 900 scores over the three days of competition.

Federico Pagnoni was the first of those to drop out in the sudden-death shootdown, posting a nine on the first scoring end on the big, recurve-10.

With scoring moved to World Archery rules (using the small, compound 10), Lewis Holmes III fell out with two nines in end two.

Indoor and outdoor World Archery Champion Sebastien Peineau, Richard Bowen, Jacob Marlow, Paul Tedford and Kris Schaff all fell out over the next series – leaving just Eyler and Lucky Dog Perkins left in the running.

The Lucky Dog, the top 899 shooter who wins a one-arrow eliminator, can only win or finish last in The Vegas Shootdown.

Perkins and Eyler went head-to-head.

It came down to one arrow – after Perkins dropped his third shot of the end low, in the bottom right face, and nearly touching the line to the red, for a 29-point total.

Eyler was left on the line, two 10s banked – and with one more required to secure the $52,000 top prize.

He nailed it.

“This is the culmination of my archery career. But I’m gonna keep shooting, because I love to shoot,” said Eyler, now the 39th Vegas Shoot compound (or freestyle) championship men/open’s winner.

Alexis Ruiz shot one perfect end on big-10 scoring and one perfect end on small-10 scoring to win the compound women’s championship shootdown, ahead of Colombia’s Nora Valdez – who finished third – and Mexican archer Linda Ochoa-Anderson.

Keith Trail took the compound senior championship, Dane Johnson the young adult event. The recurve championship winners were Steve Wijler, Lisa Unruh and Andrew Park, and David Machart won the barebow open title.

The fourth stage and final of the 2017/2018 Indoor Archery World Cup season took place in Las Vegas, USA on 9-10 February; The Vegas Shoot concluded on 11 February.

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