The 26th World Field Archery Championships are starting up in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, with competitions for juniors and seniors in Recurve, Compound and Barebow disciplines.
Instead of shooting at a stationary target at a consistent distance, field archery is based on walking through a course and shooting at targets laid out along that course, from 5-60 m away with six scoring rings on each target. Qualifications will include one day of 24 targets marked for distance and a second day with unmarked distances. Elimination matches and finals will follow. A total of 261 archers are expected to compete.
World Field Champs are held every two years and field archery was held at the 2017 World Games in Poland. The individual-event medal finalists:
∙ Men’s Recurve:
○ 2016 Worlds: 1. Brady Ellison (USA); 2. Sebastian Rohrberg (GER)
○ 2017 W. Games: 1. Amedeo Tonelli (ITA); 2. Brady Ellison (USA)
∙ Men’s Compound:
○ 2016 Worlds: 1. Steve Anderson (USA); 2. Stephan Hansen (DEN)
○ 2017 W. Games: 1. Stephan Hansen (DEN); 2. Esmaeil Ebadi (IRI)
∙ Men’s Barebow:
○ 2016 Worlds: 1. Erik Jonsson (SWE); 2. David Garcia Fernandez (ESP)
○ 2017 W. Games: 1. Istvan Kakas (HUN); 2. John Demmer (USA)
∙ Women’s Recurve:
○ 2016 Worlds: 1. Amy Oliver (GBR); 2. Jessica Tomasi (ITA)
○ 2017 W. Games: 1. Lisa Unruh (GER); 2. Naomi Foilkard (GBR)
∙ Women’s Compound:
○ 2016 Worlds: 1. Irene Franchini (ITA); 2. Linda Ochoa-Anderson (MEX)
○ 2017 W. Games: 1. Sara Lopez (COL); 2. Toja Ellison (SLO)
∙ Women’s Barebow:
○ 2016 Worlds: 1. Chantal Porte (FRA); 2. Eleonora Strobbe (ITA)
○ 2017 W. Games: 1. Cinzia Noziglia (ITA); 2. Lina Bjorklund (SWE)
Ellison has won the last two World Field Archery Championships and France’s Jean-Charles Valladont won the prior event, in 2012. Valladont finished third in the 2016 Worlds. In addition to her 2017 World Games gold, Germany’s Lisa Unruh won the World Field title in 2014. American men have won five straight Compound world titles with Rod Menzer, Dave Cousins, Jesse Broadwater (2) and Anderson.
Cortina did host the World Field Archery Champs once before, in 2000. Sweden’s Morgan Lundin won the men’s Compound division (and also later in 2006) and returns to compete in 2018! Look for results here.
