Archery Showdown in Las Vegas

Archery Showdown in Las Vegas Las Vegas (USA) – 25 February 2008   A strong American field took on some elite international archers at the Archery World Festival in Las Vegas last weekend. Dave Cousins (USA) emerged as the big winner! Dave Cousins (USA)  The famous Las Vegas Archery World Festival took place with 1700 participants on 22-24 February 2008. The tournament not only drew a big crowd of American archers and many of the best such as Ellison, Jennifer Nichols, Van Natta, Davis, Gellenthien, Reo and Logan Wilde. There were also many FITA World Cup level competitors from all over the world such as 2007 World Cup Winner Jimenez (ESA), 2007 World Champion Trillius (CAN), Hofer (SUI), White (GBR) and Pagni (ITA) in Compound Men. The Recurve Men category also featured archers like Peterson (SWE), Aubert (FRA) and Chung Jae Hun (KOR)--2005 World Champion and Barcelona silver medallist.   The nine “Championships Divisions” were fought hard by all the competitors who had to shoot 90 arrows over the three days. Peterson (SWE) came on top on the Recurve Men. Lorig (USA) won in Recurve Women. Simpson from Great Britain took over the Compound Women division and checks of 3,300 USD from the organizers and 8,000 USD from the sponsor Hoyt.   In Las Vegas, the king division is nevertheless the Compound Men, where 15 archers had a perfect 900 points after the three days of competitions. It is to be noted that the tournament uses FITA target face but counts the full 10 circle as 10 points.   The 15 men had to go to an overall shoot-off. They would shoot 3 arrows per extra-end. In the first end, all the 15 archers were again perfect with the full 10 circle. In the second end, two archers scored 29 and were therefore eliminated. For the third end, the rules would now count only the X10 as 10 points (like it is for the FITA Indoor World Championships). The selection was brutal and only five archers could keep it perfect at this level (three arrows in the X10). In the 4th end, only two archers kept if perfect: Dave Cousins and Michael Braden from the USA. The 5th extra-end was going to be decisive. Braden scored X10-9-X10 while Cousins scored three X10 again! The second arrow of Cousins barely touched the line to give him the victory! He earned 20,000 USD from the tournament and 18,000 USD from Hoyt.   Cousins said: “This tournament is a great gathering for all archery people of various backgrounds and levels. It’s also a great stage for elite archery. I was proud to have won it once in the past, but winning it twice in Vegas with such a high level of competition makes me really emotional.” He also said: “This year, I will come back on the Archery World Cup and I am looking forward to the Stage 1 in Santo Domingo.”   All results can be found on the official website of the competition: www.nfaa-archery.org/tournaments/vegas.   Didier Miéville FITA Communication