United States put four into men’s bronze finals

The first stage of the Archery World Cup in Shanghai didn’t start so well for the vaunted United States men.

Reo WILDE did set a new record – a perfect 150 with 12 X-ring shots – and Steve ANDERSON made it through to the quarterfinals, but that was as much as they could muster. Both compound and recurve teams were knocked out early, too. 

The squad wanted to write a different story in Antalya. 

At the beginning of the day, Brady ELLISON had a first-round match against teammate Zach GARRETT. It went in Brady’s favour – and began a run that saw a headline quarterfinal against Olympic Champion OH Jin Hyek. 

“The match with OH was good. I’m not scared that the Koreans are good shooters because I can be a good shooter times two,” self-confident ELLISON stated after a 7-1 win over a nemesis he’s beaten twice in a row. 

(The last was the quarterfinals of the Lausanne 2014 Archery World Cup Final.) 

“I was tired of being knocked out in quarterfinals and I was not going to lose that match,” he added. 

In a semifinal with LEE Seungyun, the Korean took the lead from beginning to end and beat Brady in straight sets and putting him into a bronze medal match against another States archer, Collin KLIMITCHEK.

One of the USA’s newest men’s team members, KLIMITCHEK had his best performance so far at an Archery World Cup. He lost a semifinal against KIM Woojin in which the set scores were extremely close, until the last series – when the Korean’s 29 sealed a solid second gold final on the World Cup tour in a row. 

“I finished my last set with not a great score – 23 – but there’s only one shot I would have changed. It was a good match and I’m now looking for the finals,” said Collin. 

Reo WILDE looked to be on course for a gold medal final, especially after he comfortably knocked out Danish pro Martin DAMSBO in the quarters, but he came up against the train that is Mister Perfect. 

Dutchman Mike SCHLOESSER, who won his nickname by becoming the first person to shoot an unbeatable 600 out of 600 indoors, dropped just three points in four matches – 150, 149, 149, 149 – and edged Reo out by four points in their semifinal. 

“It’s a step,” said Reo, who had to borrow weights from his teammates earlier in the week as not all his bags arrived from the airport. (He shoots with a lot of mass on the end of both stabilisers.)

“My goal is to make the World Cup Final. To be in the bronze medal match here will give me good points towards that.” 

He’ll shoot against 2014 World Cup Final Champion Bridger DEATON for bronze. 

“In China we all had a rough tournament. To have four into the finals in Antalya is exciting,” said DEATON after missing out in a semifinal shoot-off to another Korean, KIM Jongho. 

Both shot centre-ring arrows, but Jongho’s was closer. 

“With this wind I can’t really complain with a 10. He made a great shot,” admitted Bridger. 

With a pair of matches against each other in the Antalya finals, the USA men can be proud of a big jump in performance from Shanghai and two guaranteed medals from the second Archery World Cup stage of the year. 

Read more about Antalya 2015.