World Archery Athlete of the Year 2015 Results: Compound Men

Stephan Hansen collected the compound men’s World Archery Athlete of the Year 2015 Award at the World Archery Gala in Las Vegas on Friday 29 January 2016. He was voted top of a five-athlete shortlist by the general public and World Archery’s awards panel. The shortlist was proposed by national archery federations and archery experts.

Here are the full results…

1. Stephan Hansen  – 25%

Winner of two World Archery Champion titles in 2015 – his third consecutive world youth crown and the senior event in Copenhagen – world number three Stephan turned just 20 years of age during the season. The win at the summer worlds was made all the more special as it was on home turf, in Denmark, and in front of a huge Danish crowd.

2. Demir Elmaagacli  – 23%

After edging into an Archery World Cup Final berth with solid performances across the year’s stages, Demir proceeded to outperform a star-studded field, beating Reo Wilde, Dominique Genet and, number four on this list, Abhishek Verma on the way to collecting Turkey its first Archery Word Cup Champion crown.

His only previous individual international medal came seven years previously, at the world youth champs in Antalya in 2008. Welcome back to the podium, Demir!

3. Mike Schloesser  – 20%

One of the most memorable performances indoors in history came courtesy of Mike Schloesser, early in 2015, when he shot the first-ever perfect qualification round indoors. The 600/600 in Nimes won’t be beaten as long as competition runs under the current rules.

Mister Perfect also had individual silver medals at the Archery World Cup stages in Shanghai and Antalya.

4. Abhishek Verma  – 18%

One of two Indian compound men to make a mark on the rankings in 2015 (the other was Rajat Chauhan), Verma picked up an individual win at the Archery World Cup stage in Wroclaw. Then, like fellow-nominee Demir Elmaagacli, he upset the seeds to finish on the podium at the Archery World Cup Final in Mexico City. He beat Martin Damsbo and home favourite Mario Cardoso – with a perfect 150, no less – to set up a gold medal match against Demir.

His Turkish opponent emerged top, but the silver marked Verma’s most successful year to date, and pushed him up to sixth in the world rankings.

5. Sebastien Peineau  – 14%

Frenchman Peineau started the 2015 Archery World Cup season with gold in Shanghai and finished it with gold in Medellin, Colombia. The pair of wins, remarkable considering the level of competition in the category, earned Seb the number one spot in the world rankings, which he carries entering 2016.