Lockdown Knockout final four: Paige Pearce, Sara Lopez, Mike Schloesser and Anders Faugstad

The first live and remote international archery competition is into its latter stages.

Anders Faugstad is set to face Mike Schloesser in the Lockdown Knockout men’s semifinal on Thursday 14 May, while Paige Pearce takes on Sara Lopez in the women’s side of the bracket one day later. Both matches commence at 17h00 CET and will be streamed live across World Archery’s digital platforms.

The grand final of the tournament will feature the remaining unbeaten man against the last unbeaten woman. The Lockdown Knockout winner, decided on Sunday 17 May, will collect 1000 CHF and the runner-up will receive 500 CHF.

Competition began with a qualification period at the start of May.

Three of the top seeds – Anders, Mike and Paige – made it to the final four. Fourth-ranked Toja Ellison, who shot 584 points, was beaten by world number two (and fifth seed) Sara Lopez in a tense comeback upset.

This unique take on tournament archery has been made all the more interesting due to a rule limiting the size of arrows. Despite shooting 18 metres, the eight compound archers were only permitted to use thin shafts, more suited to 50 metres.

It’s simply made the two-centimetre 10-ring much harder to hit.

Semifinals

The winner of each semifinal will advance to the final. There will be no match to decide third and fourth places.

Men: Anders Faugstad versus Mike Schloesser
Thursday 14 May at 17h00 CET

Mike will shoot in his garden in the Netherlands, Anders in a well-equipped indoor range in Norway. Mister Perfect was the first archer to shoot a perfect 600-point round over 18 metres, with thick arrows of course, but it’s Anders who has shot the best scores in this event so far.

“I found it really difficult to hit with my outdoor set-up and became quite frustrated, so I did a little tuning on my bow to get it to work with thin arrows,” said Anders.

The 20-year-old Norwegian, who was the winner of the junior worlds and runner-up at the senior worlds in 2019, qualified top with 594 points and shot 148 for his first match. Schloesser is the reigning Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion.

Women: Paige Pearce versus Sara Lopez
Friday 15 May at 17h00 CET

Paige’s range stretches from her Californian home’s kitchen to the back door while Sara’s target is in her back garden in Colombia. To date in competition proper, they’ve faced each other three times with Sara leading the series, 2-1.

Most recently, the Colombian world number two beat the world championship runner-up in the semifinals at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima. Sara won that event. She has said she’ll donate any prize money she wins during this Lockdown Knockout to charity.

Quarterfinals

All eight compound archers shot the same qualification but the men were seeded on one side of the bracket and the women on the other.

Anders Faugstad 148-146 Steve Anderson

Young Norwegian archer Anders continued an impressive run from qualification, dropping just two points to beat Steve. The latter man started stronger but dropped too many arrows in the nine over the back half of the match.

Mike Schloesser 146*-146 Domagoj Buden

This back-and-forth contest had no clear winner until the very end. Tight, and with multiple lead changes, Mike put down an inside-out 10 with his shoot-off arrow while Domagoj’s tiebreak shot, though still a 10, hit the line.

Paige Pearce 145-142 Linda Ochoa-Anderson

Top-qualifying woman Paige shoots her matches at eight in the morning California time. The early start didn‘t stop the world number three from posting the best 15-arrow match score of any of the women in the first round and taking a comfortable win over Linda.

Sara Lopez 143*-143 Toja Ellison

The last quarterfinal was Toja’s all the way – until Lopez shot a perfect 30 points in the fifth and final end, forcing the second shoot-off of these quarterfinals. Toja’s tiebreak arrow landed wide right, Sara’s hit the middle. 

The Lockdown Knockout is the first remote international event being streamed live across World Archery’s digital platforms.