ODENSE, Denmark - Brady Ellison (Globe, Arizona) has participated at seven Archery World Cup Finals since the event's inception in 2006, and previously held the record for three gold finishes - more than anyone in history. Today he broke his own record and earned his fourth Archery World Cup Final Champion title. Ellison also earned his fourth Longines Prize for Precision award keeping his hold on the prestigious honor that has only been available to win four times.
Today's gold final was an opponent rematch of the Rio 2016 Olympic archery bronze match between Ellison and the Netherlands' Sjef Van Den Berg. Van den Berg reported that he was still disappointed about his fourth place finish in Rio behind Ellison's bronze medal win. Ellison opened the match with a strong first two sets to take the lead 4-0. Then Van Den Berg came back to bring the match to a 4-4 tie. In the last arrow Van Den Berg needed a nine to secure the win; he shot an eight. Ellison, who has won 64% of his tie-breaker shoot offs, shot a nine. Van Den Berg responded with another eight and gave Ellison the win.
USA's Zach Garrett (Wellington, Missouri) made his World Cup Final debut earlier, just one month after his Olympic Games debut in Rio. At one point this summer Garrett was ranked third in the world, and coming into competition today he was seeded 6th. Facing Chinese Taipei's Chun-Heng Wei, Garrett had a tough opponent. Wei took the match in three straight sets to advance. Wei then met Ellison in the semifinals, where Ellison took the win 6-2 to shoot for the gold. Korea's Olympic Champion Ku then defeated Wei again for the bronze.
In addition to the World Cup Final title, Ellison also earned his fourth Longines Prize. Longines introduced the Prize for Precision in 2010 to celebrate the most accurate archers across of the year. The male and female archer with the highest number of 10s through ranking round and elimination matches, accumulated at all stages and the Final of the Archery World Cup, are awarded the prize. Recurve archers are eligible for the award in even years and compound archers in odd years, so out of the four possible years for recurve, Ellison has won all four times.
"I really like the Longines Prize for Precision for a couple of reasons," Ellison told World Archery. "One, I'm the only person that wins it, so I really like that; that I've been that fortunate. I do like that it's a good showing for consistency over the whole season. You may not be winning tournaments but you are shooting well enough to be in the top. I think that's cool. I like getting a watch. It gives you extra incentive to do something besides win a tournament."
On winning his fourth World Cup Final title, Ellison added: "It means a lot. It's my fourth World Cup Final championship. [Colombia's] Sara Lopez was getting close, but winning it this time and pushing it a little farther out of reach, feels good. It caps a pretty good year. I won the indoor World Cup final, individual Olympic medal, bronze at the world championships, and now this." Up next for Ellison: World Archery Field Championships in Dublin, Ireland begin tomorrow.
Complete results from the Archery World Cup Final can be found at www.worldarchery.org.
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