Brady says he was “given” ticket to 12th straight World Cup Final

Brady Ellison has been one of the most consistent archers of the last decade-plus.

In 11 consecutive appearances at the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final, he’s accrued a monumental five wins in 10 podiums, with three second and two third places. The only time he’s made it to the season finale and missed the medals? Mexico City in 2015.

In 2022, he will have the chance to right that wrong – when the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final returns to Mexico, this time to the city of Tlaxcala.

“I feel like I was given the Final rather than making it myself,” said Brady after Medellin.

The 33-year-old wasn’t on the field when his ticket to Tlaxcala was booked. He was, instead, back home in the US – and it was a semifinal loss for his teammate Jack Williams that locked Ellison in as a points qualifier.

In a nuance of ranking maths, it was only Williams who could remove the former World Archery Champion from the line-up. To do so, he had to win the event. It was a juicy storyline given that it was Williams who beat Ellison in the recurve men’s gold medal match at last year’s Hyundai Archery World Cup Final in Yankton.

Would it be two seasons in a row that the up-and-coming young teammate would upset the figurehead of archery in the USA?

“I was really thinking Jack could win and thought he should have against Kim Woojin,” Brady continued. Williams lost to Kim in five sets in the first match of the final four, the Korean world number one finishing with a 30.

“But I am in the Final now, and now I’m going to have to take advantage and try to get the win,” he said.

This hasn’t been the most impressive season of Ellison’s career. A perennial medal contender over the past few seasons, he managed just one individual bronze medal in 2022 – in Antalya. His qualifying scores haven’t been at the same (world-record) level and his average arrow is back down in the 9.3s, his lowest points rate since 2018.

But however he got there, the man with the most podiums at the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final is back at the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final.

“And 12 in a row is pretty cool,” added Brady.

The 2022 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final takes place in the Mexican city of Tlaxcala in October.