Mexico City 2015: Compound men’s competition preview

The 2015 Archery World Cup Final runs on 24/25 October in Mexico City .

Categories: compound women, recurve women, recurve men, mixed team

Qualification story

Mike ‘Mister Perfect’ Schloesser had silver in Shanghai then silver in Antalya to start the season. He was mathematically secure after the third stage, where he finished sixth.

After a bronze medal and two top-10 finishes in the first three stages, Reo Wilde’s spot was secured when he made the Medellin quarterfinals. Mexico City will be his sixth Final and fifth in a row.

Abhishek Verma won Wroclaw, saying his secret was “staying happy”. He didn’t shoot Medellin, but by the quarterfinals in Colombia there was no way he could be eliminated.

Paris 2013 Archery World Cup Final Champion Martin Damsbo never finished higher than fourth on the 2015 circuit, but he also never finished lower than eighth. Consistency won out – and the Dane shot himself into a ticket-winning spot off the back of a solid season.

The compound men’s roster was completed before the Medellin semis began, with Demir Elmaagacli and two French archers who both did well at stage one in Shanghai – Sebastien Peineau and Dominique Genet – stealing qualifying tickets out from under the noses of States pair Steve Anderson and Bridger Deaton.

Peineau’s quarterfinal win over ’14 Champion Deaton, 149-145, was the clincher – and the Frenchman only improved his Mexico City seed when he won gold in Colombia.

The qualifiers

(The seed for the Archery World Cup Final is given in brackets after each athlete’s name.)

Mike Schloesser  (1)

The first man to shoot a perfect qualification round indoors – 600 out of 600 at 18 metres – took silver at each of the first two Archery World Cup stages of the season. In Shanghai, he lost the final to France’s Seb Peineau and was bested only by Korea’s Kim Jongho in the gold medal match of the stage in Antalya.

Another top-eight performance at the third stage in Wroclaw and Mike was mathematically secure for his first Archery World Cup Final appearance.

At the fourth and last stage in Medellin, the quarterfinal match featuring World Champion 2015 Stephan Hansen and World Champion 2013 Schloesser went to a shoot-off, in which the Dane shot an X10, beating Mike’s nine. For the flying Dutchman, though, it didn’t matter – he was already the Mexico City top seed.

sebastien peineau  (2)

World number one Sebastien Peineau wrapped-up the 2014 Archery World Cup season in Medellin just as he started it, in Shanghai, with gold. In China, he had successfully defended the title he had already won in 2014.

In Colombia, Seb beat reigning Archery World Cup Final Champion Bridger Deaton in the quarterfinals and another USA archer in the semis, now six-time World Cup finalist Reo Wilde.

Seb qualified for his second Archery World Cup Final in 2015 after finishing sixth at Lausanne 2014.

Reo Wilde  (3)

On the 10th anniversary of the Archery World Cup, the winner of the very first circuit back in ’06 will shoot for the title once again.

After a bronze medal and two top-10 finishes in the first three stages, Reo’s sixth Archery World Cup Final appearance was secured when he made the Medellin quarterfinals.

Martin Damsbo  (4)

In an emotional bronze medal match at Wroclaw 2015, Martin had shot two perfect 30s in the first three ends of the match and was two points up on USA’s Steve Anderson. Another 10 from Damsbo with his 10th arrow, which his USA opponent matched, before he suffered a disastrous equipment failure.

For the second time in the competition, a release aid froze up and Martin couldn’t shoot his shot. The same thing happened in his semifinal match-up. 

Steve took Wroclaw bronze – however it was Martin’s consistency over the World Cup season that won out. The Paris 2013 Archery World Cup Champion landed himself a ticket by making the quarters of every stage of the year, despite never managing to podium.

Abhishek Verma  (5)

Abhishek Verma won Wroclaw after finishing fifth at the Antalya stage. His gold medal match in Poland was a rematch of the Incheon 2014 Asian Games.

That event was the first continental Games to include compound archery as a competition discipline – and Abhishek faced Esmaeil Ebadi from Iran for the historic first title. The Indian athlete had already won an Asian Games title with his compound men’s team – but didn’t manage to double his gold count, scoring his lowest total of the tournament in the final. He took revenge on Ebadi in Wroclaw, outclassing his opponent en route to a first World Cup stage win.

Abhishek didn’t shoot Medellin, but by the quarterfinals in Colombia there was no way he could be eliminated from the race to Mexico City.

Dominique Genet  (6)

The Frenchman had a consistent season with three top-10s: Bronze in Shanghai, ninth in Antalya, and sixth in Medellin. When Genet’s teammate Peineau’s knocked out ’14 Champion Bridger Deaton in the quarters, Dominique’s invitation was safe.

World Archery Championship mixed team silver medallist in 2015, Genet is in for a third World Cup Final. He’ll look for improvement from a seventh place at Tokyo 2012 and fourth at Paris 2013.

Demir Elmaagacli  (7)

During his most successful senior season – Demir was silver medallist at the World Archery Youth Championships in 2008 – the 24-year old won both the individual and mixed team events at the European Grand Prix in Marathon 2015 and came second with the Turkish team.

On the World Cup circuit, consistently making the top eight – fifth in Shanghai, sixth in Antalya and eighth in Wroclaw – was enough to qualify him for the Archery World Cup Final. In China, he shocked number one seed Stephan Hansen on his way through the elimination brackets.

Demir also finished fifth at the World Championships in Copenhagen this summer. Off the back of such performances, he made it up to sixth in the world rankings!

Mario Cardoso  (8, host nation)

Mario Cardoso picked up a top-eight finish in Antalya and a top-16 in Medellin. Fifteenth in the compound men’s World Cup rankings, he was the best-performing Mexican compound man of the season and top pick as representative for the home team.

Storyline in short

While we’re predicting the gold medal match to be an all-European affair, the Wilde-card in this one – excuse the pun – is Reo.

Winner of the first Archery World Cup circuit back in 2006, when champion titles were decided in Mexico, too, Wilde’s appearing at his sixth Archery World Cup Final in 2015. That’s a decade at the top – and the poetic finish would be for Reo to win a second gold at the tournament on its 10th anniversary.

He’ll have no easy road to the final and title, though.

the final: Schloesser  / Peineau ?

Mister Perfect’s indoor form is unparalleled, his outdoor not far off – but, in 2015, Frenchman Peineau had more success on the outdoor circuit. With wins at stages one and four, Seb both started strong and started peaking at the right time.

Heading into Mexico, he’s undoubtedly got the hottest form.

Advantage: Peineau

See someone else winning? Let us know on Twitter, @worldarchery is the handle.