The climax of the World Archery World Cup season comes this week n Moscow (URS) with the World Cup Final, a unique program that pits the top eight archers from the season against each other in a direct-elimination tournament, with the bracket created from a random draw.
Here’s how it will play out:
Men/Recurve:
● Brady Ellison (USA) vs. Artem Makhnenko (RUS)
● Sjef van den Berg (NED) vs. Steve Wijler (NED)
● Mauro Nespoli (ITA) vs. Jae-Hyeon Bae (KOR)
● Mete Gazoz (TUR) vs. Woo-Jin Kim (KOR)
Ellison is the 2019 World Champion, has won the U.S. National Target Championships, U.S. Open and U.S. Field Archery title. He also two of the four World Cup tournaments and won a bronze in a third. He’s the favorite; look for the winner of the Gazoz vs. former World Champion Kim match at the bottom of the bracket to be the top challenger.
Women/Recurve:
● Ya-Ting Tan (TPE) vs. Tomomi Sugimoto (JPN)
● Melanie Gaubil (FRA) vs. Qixuan An (CHN)
● Yichai Zheng (CHN) vs. Ksenia Perova (RUS)
● Chae-Young Kang (KOR) vs. Sayana Lee (RUS)
Kang was the World Championships silver medalist and won the first two World Cup stages. Perova will be difficult to beat on home soil, and the winner of that semi will likely face the winner of Tan vs. Sugimoto; Tan has three medals in World Cups this season: all bronzes.
Men/Compound:
● Mike Schloesser (NED) vs. Jozef Bosansky (SVK)
● Anton Bulaev (RUS) vs. James Lutz (USA)
● Daniel Munoz (COL) vs. Sergio Pagni (ITA)
● Braden Gellenthien (USA) vs. Evren Cagiran (TUR)
Women/Compound:
● Alexis Ruiz (USA) vs. Natalia Avdeeva (RUS)
● Tanja Jensen (DEN) vs. Danelle Wentzel (RSA)
● Toja Ellison (SLO) vs. Sophie Dodemont (FRA)
● Sara Lopez (COL) vs. Chaewon So (KOR)
Litz and Avdeeva are the Compound World Champions in 2019, and Lutz won the World Cup stage at Antalya (TUR). But Schloesser, a former World Champion himself won three World Cup medals and Gellenthien won two. They’re the likely favorites.
In the women’s draw, Ruiz has been on fire and is the only shooter to medal in all four World Cup tournaments. She’s the favorite, even against World Champion Avdeeva. Lopez won two medals and So won a World Cup stage. Ellison is the wife of Brady Ellison and they will be trying to outdo each other on the range!
Competition is scheduled for Friday (Compound) and Saturday (Recurve) at the Luzhniki Sports Centre, adjacent to the main stadium for the 1980 Olympic Games. The top four finishers in each division will receive CHF 20,000-10,000-5,000-1,000. Look for results here.
