World #1 books Samsun ticket with Salt Lake win

Stephan Hansen secured a place to the 2018 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final with victory over Abhishek Verma, 140-132, in a windy final at stage three of the international tour in Salt Lake City, USA.

“It was just crazy conditions. Going in and practising, I was just thinking - am I going to miss the target more than once? But it held up fine, I was able to execute decent shots and I’m pretty happy with it actually,” said Hansen. 

Hansen dealt a perfect 30 to finish the match, after Verma found himself on the back foot with a miss in the third end.

“The last three arrows were good, yeah. I was just really thinking about shooting two arrows and then I was having a lead good enough to win so I really didn’t care much about the last one,” he added.

With athletes dealing with a swirling and unpredictable wind from the first to last arrows in the arena, Hansen matched women’s winner Sara Lopez for the high score on the field with 140 points.

“I was pretty comfortable that I would still make it [and qualify for Samsun], even though I didn’t make it to Shanghai – but making it with a win is just easier, I don’t have to think about Berlin, really, about qualifying for it. I lost here to Mike in a shoot-off, even though I shot good. Now I shot good and I won, and it’s just nice to have an extra competition this season,” he said.

Hansen joins Kim Jongho and Mike Schloesser as confirmed on the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final roster, with USA athlete Braden Gellenthien all-but-confirmed on points – and leading the ranking after three of four stages of the tour.

Gellenthien and Anton Bulaev’s messy bronze medal match finished with the Russian archer five points ahead, 138-133.

The third stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup takes place in Salt Lake City, USA on 18-24 June.