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USA Archery News

August 20, 2021

USA Archery Crowns 137th Target National Champions

RICHMOND, Virginia – It was another beautiful day for archery at the second of two days of qualification at the 137^thUSA Archery Target Nationals. With 144 scoring arrows in the books, archers shattered records, earned personal achievements and enjoyed new and old friends.

Shawnn Vincent, in his 12^th year on the circuit, brought home his first big win today, shooting a 1411 for the compound senior men’s national title. Outscoring James Lutz on Xs, Vincent was emotional about the win: “It hasn’t really sunk in yet. All day, so many of us were within a point, back and forth, back and forth, top three, top five, and then in the last end, you’re like okay don’t screw it up. I got up there and shot a 59 and I’m like okay, I’m at least a podium and then Jimmy came over to congratulate me.”

“I’ve been doing this for 12 years, never won anything as a pro, so a lot of work and life happens, I’ve been so busy with work, so it feels so good,” added Vincent. “There are guys back home covering my shifts at work and I called my daughter Emri to wake her up and share the good news and she was so excited, she’s my coach and we’re really happy and really thankful to USA Archery for putting on this event.”

In the recurve masters 70+ division, Candice Raines won bronze; her first national medal in 31 years of shooting USA Archery events.

Vijaya Lakshmi Gottapu won the barebow senior women’s gold in her first USA Archery national event. Laksmi had previously competed in recurve in India, and was thrilled with her performance this weekend: “Seriously, this was wonderful. I can see my hard work over there on the podium and it’s nice to have everything come together. There are really great people here and it’s wonderful to be here, I had a lot of fun.”

Tim Gillingham, who broke the compound master men’s world record yesterday, broke the 2x72 50meter record today with a 1413/1440. “I’m having a great run with Bowtech,” Gillingham credited his setup for his success, “I look at my career and I’ve never had such a good stretch without equipment problems… that’s a prerequisite of having consistency. I’ve always felt I could shoot better than I did, but I get in my head a lot. I think there’s a little less pressure over here in the Masters division and I’m able to shoot my ability more. I made a little bit of a change before this tournament in my arrows that made a big difference and I’m always trying little things to make myself better.”

Brady Ellison also broke the world record, while winning another national title, for more than a decade on top.

Complete results are available on Between Ends and photos are on USA Archery’s SmugMug. Competition continues tomorrow with the U.S. Open. The senior gold medal matches will be live streamed via Competition Archery Media on Saturday at 2:30pm ET.