Beginners’ guide to the Moscow 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final

The international archery season is coming to a close as the year’s best athletes travel to Moscow, Russia on 6-7 September for the 14th Hyundai Archery World Cup Final.

Archers qualified for the event by winning stages in Medellin, Colombia; Shanghai, China; Antalya, Turkey and Berlin, Germany or collecting enough ranking points across the year.

Two of the circuit’s defending champions, Kim Woojin and Sara Lopez, return in 2019. Three reigning world champions will compete. All 32 of the archers on the Moscow roster have a shot at being crowned Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion.

Factsheet: Moscow 2019

  • Venue: Red Square (draw) and Luzhniki Stadium (competition), Moscow
  • Dates: 6-7 September
  • Number of athletes: 32 (eight in each category)
  • Medals: 4 individual plus 2 mixed team

Defending champions

Line-ups

Recap the full line-up for the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final in Moscow.

Any names followed by the city of a stage indicates the winner of that tournament. The numbers (1) and (2) identify the top seeds in each of the categories and an archer with (host) is filling Russia’s invitational place at the Final.

Recurve men: Brady Ellison, USA (1) (Medellin, Antalya); Mete Gazoz, Turkey (2) (Berlin); Sjef van den Berg, Netherlands; Kim Woojin, Korea; Mauro Nespoli, Italy; Steve Wijler, Netherlands; Bae Jaehyeon, Korea and Artem Makhnenko, Russia (host).

Recurve women: Tan Ya-Ting, Chinese Taipei (1); Kang Chae Young, Korea (2) (Medellin, Shanghai); Tomomi Sugimoto, Japan; An Qixuan, China; Zheng Yichai, China (Antalya); Ksenia Perova, Russia; Melanie Gaubil, France and Sayana Tsyrempilova, Russia (host)

Compound men: Mike Schloesser, Netherlands (1) (Medellin); Braden Gellenthien, USA (2) (Shanghai); Evren Cagiran, Turkey (Berlin); Daniel Munoz, Colombia; Jozef Bosansky, Slovakia; James Lutz, USA (Antalya); Sergio Pagni, Italy and Anton Bulaev, Russia (host).

Compound women: Alexis Ruiz, USA (1) (Berlin); Sara Lopez, Colombia (2) (Medellin); Toja Ellison, Slovenia; Tanja Jensen, Denmark; Sophie Dodemont, France; Danelle Wentzel, South Africa (Antalya); So Chaewon, Korea (Shanghai) and Natalia Avdeeva, Russia (host).

Schedule

Wednesday 4 September: Official draw (evening).

Thursday 5 September: Athlete practice, streamed Archery Show.

Friday 6 September: Compound women (afternoon), compound men (evening). Compound mixed team match at the end of the afternoon session.

Saturday 7 September: Recurve women (afternoon), recurve men (evening). Recurve mixed team match at the end of the afternoon session.

Five facts

1) First to five. Brady Ellison and Sara Lopez both arrive in Russia with four Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion crowns. Who’ll be first to five? And will it happen in Moscow?

(Kim Woojin is the two-time defending winner in the recurve men’s event and has three career titles… so not that far behind.)

2) The draw. Since last season, the head-to-head match-ups for the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final have not been decided on season ranking – but randomly.

The top two seeds are placed at opposite ends of the bracket and the remaining spots filled in randomly. This year’s draw will take place in the evening on Wednesday at the famous GUM department store on Red Square and could throw up some exciting initial matches.

3) One day early. The competition in Moscow takes place on Friday 6 and Saturday 7 September, not over the weekend like normal. It’s not a mistake!

The sessions will also take place in the afternoon and evening. It means the men’s competitions will be shot, at least partially, under stadium lighting.

4) Russian champion. The host country, Russia, hasn’t had a champion of the international circuit since Albina Loginova in 2010. Natalia Avdeeva, who is at the final on an invitation, might be best placed to become the next having already won the Hyundai World Archery Championships in 2019.

In the international circuit’s 14-year history, no host country of the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final has ever had an archer win the event. 

5) Longines Prize for Precision. This season’s awards are for the compound archers who shoot the most 10s across the season.

Arriving in Moscow, Braden Gellenthien leads the men with 407 to Mike Schloesser’s 377. it’s a nearly insurmountable lead but if Braden loses his first match and Mike doesn’t, there’s an outside chance the Dutchman catches up.

Alexis Ruiz, who has collected 401 10s so far, has a lead of 79 on Tanja Jensen. The world number one will collect her first career Longines watch in Russia – but she’s there to win the Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion title, too.

Competition format

Recurve athletes shoot at 122cm targets set 70 metres, with 10 scoring zones awarding 10 to one points. Competition starts with a 72-arrow ranking round, used to seed athletes, and is followed by an elimination bracket resolved using set system matchplay.

Athletes shoot sets of three arrows – and the highest-scoring athlete in the set receives two set points; a draw awards one set point to each athlete. The first athlete to six set points wins the match. Mixed teams shoot sets of four arrows, two arrows per athlete per set. The first mixed team to five set points wins the match.

Compound athletes shoot at 80cm targets set 50 metres away, with six scoring zones awarding 10 to five points (the outer four are removed). Competition starts with a 72-arrow ranking round, used to seed athletes, and is followed by an elimination bracket resolved using cumulative scoring matchplay.

Athletes shoot matches of 15 arrows, in five ends of three arrows, and the highest-scoring athlete wins the match. Mixed teams shoot matches of 16 arrows, two arrows per athlete across four ends.

The 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final takes place on 6-7 September in Moscow, Russia.

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