USA’s Ruiz, Broadnax become world champions in Rosario

USA compound archers Alexis Ruiz and Curtis Broadnax became 2017 World Archery Youth Champions, winning junior gold medals in Rosario, Argentina by beating Sarah Moon and Jesse Clayton, respectively.

Seeded first in Rosario over the 72-arrow 50-metre ranking round, Alexis beat Andrea Orella, Sofia Fadeeva, Mrinal Anil Hiwrale and Sara Ret before meeting British archer Moon in the final.

Ruiz, who scored an average of nearly 29 points an end over the 15-arrow match, won by five points, 144-139.

“It feels amazing, I was just making strong shots and they were just going in the middle,” said Alexis. “It was a competitive match. I train every day for four hours and almost 300 hundred arrows every single day and I just haven’t given up keeping the strong shots.”

Third seed Broadnax clashed with teammate and top-ranked Clayton in the compound junior men’s final.

“It’s great. A lot of shooting this week, a lot of hard work put into it and it’s just coming up as a success,” said Curtis.

“I know how Jesse shoots, we always shoot well against each other, we have a lot of fun and it was like we were back in the States – although we’re in Argentina.”

Tied after the first three arrows at 29 points each, Curtis then took a three-point lead in the second, 59-56, which he increased over the back nine arrows, taking the match by nine, 146-137.

Clayton said: “It was roller-coaster. It all kind of worked together and shooting against my teammate was awesome. We always go back and forth in competition.”

Cadet boy Ethan Merrill took cadet men’s silver, losing a one-arrow shoot-off to Puerto Rico’s Bryan Alvarado.

“Today I’m really happy with how I shot. This is my first very world tournament, I’ve never gone up on a stage like this and I’ll be honest, I was a bit nervous – and it affected me a little bit,” said Ethan.

The 2017 World Archery Youth Championships run 2 to 10 October in Rosario, Argentina.