Brady leads men after field world’s unmarked qualification

Four-time Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion and Olympic bronze medallist Brady Ellison’s 383 was 10 points clear at the top of the recurve men’s ranking field after day one of the Dublin 2016 World Archery Field Championships. Ellison arrived at the tournament as the defending champion.

Five athletes sat on between 373 and 370, trailing Ellison. That list included 2012 winner – and Rio silver medallist – JC Valladont and ’04 World Archery Field Champion Jon Shales.

“It was flat. The range officials did a great job masking 60- and 80cm faces and switching between the right distances to really mess with you,” said Brady.

“It was a challenging course that way. The wind made it very difficult on a couple of targets. Other than that, it was fun, it was field. I mis-judged a couple of targets today [in terms of distance], but I didn’t mis-face any.”

Amy Oliver’s 354 was good for top over the 24-target unmarked portion of the recurve women’s qualification, while Jamie van Natta finished first of the compound women’s field with 401.

Croatia’s Ivana Buden sat on the 400-mark, in second.

Twenty compound men crested 400 – with 2010 and 2002 World Archery Field Champion Dave Cousins at the head on 419. After the marked, second day of qualification, only 16 athletes in each category advance to the first stage of eliminations.

Swedish barebow archers Erik Jonsson and Lina Bjorklund were top in their divisions, with 363 and 331, respectively.

The 2016 World Archery Field Championships run 27 September to 2 October in Dublin, Ireland.