Crispin Duenas beats Brady Ellison in Rome with nine perfect 10s
Canadian Olympian Crispin Duenas shot nine perfect arrows to beat three-time Olympic medallist Brady Ellison to the recurve men’s title at the 2018 Roma Archery Trophy, the third event of the 2019 Indoor Archery World Series.
“I had to work hard in my first matches. Then, everything lined up as it should and I won this great gold medal,” said Duenas.
“I’m really happy with my performance and I will surely be back next year.”
The pair had tied on 593 points to lead qualification and progressed through opposite ends of the bracket to meet in the final.
Ellison was landing left in the match, scoring sets of 28, 29 and 29 points – which were quickly trumped by Duenas’ trio of 30s as the Canadian archer took the match, 6-0.
Kim Surin beat Gabriela Bayardo in an equally fast recurve women’s gold medal match.
Despite shooting well below her average in the finals arena, Bayardo’s second silver medal of this 2019 Indoor Archery World Series accrued her enough points to jump into the lead in the elite ranking.
Alexis Ruiz expanded her lead in the compound women’s list with her second consecutive victory on the series. After winning the Macau Open just two weeks ago, she dispatched Mariya Shkolna in a lopsided final, 147 points to 139, to take gold in Rome, too.
“I felt great here, I’ve been training so much to be here. It’s been such a hard weekend, but it ended up in winning a gold medal,” said Ruiz.
Braden Gellenthien doubled the count for USA archers topping the compound podiums in Italy.
He had an opportunity to bury Martin Damsbo in the last end of the men’s final but finished the match with a nine, leaving both archers on 148 for the regulation 15-arrow match and sending it to a tiebreaker.
Still, after Martin posted a low nine in the shoot-off, Braden found the middle again. He won the match with a 10.
“I felt so confident in shooting here, it was a good weekend,” said Gellenthien.
“It's been a great emotion to win the gold medal of this Indoor World Series leg, after winning the gold medal at the outdoor World Cup last year. Rome is my lucky city, I will be here again next year, for sure.”
The 32-year-old won his second career Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion title in Rome in late 2017.
Faith Miller, who set the Indoor Archery World Series’ third world record in as many events during qualification at the Roma Trophy, finished top of the compound junior women’s event.
“I didn't expect to shoot the world record and then win the gold medal,” said Miller. “Rome is beautiful and I'll surely come back next year.”
Kalle Numminen, Olha Shubkina and Matteo Canovai also won junior titles.
Each stage of the Indoor Archery World Series is encouraged to offer the most appropriate roster of categories and the event in Rome featured popular competitions for barebow and longbow bowstyles. The finals of these were also held in the arena.
Italian archers Marco Pontremolesi and Iuana Bassi won the longbow events.
Cinzia Noziglia, a multiple world champion who won the World Games in Wroclaw in 2017, took the barebow women’s title.
“It's been a great time for barebow in indoor competitions, considering it's not usually included in the most important events. I felt so happy for sharing the experience of shooting with so many champions,” said Noziglia, also from Italy.
Spain’s David Garcia Fernandez won the barebow men’s event.
After three events of the 2019 Indoor Archery World Series, there’s a three-way tie in the recurve men’s elite ranking lead between Duenas, Steve Wijler and Oh Jin Hyek on 250 points.
Bayardo (345) and Ruiz (500) are clear leaders in the recurve women’s and compound women’s lists, respectively.
Mike Schloesser, who finished the Roma Trophy in ninth, retained the top spot in the compound men’s ranking with 330 points, 20 ahead of Domagoj Buden.
The new open ranking, which lists all participants based on their best-combined ranking round scores is led by Thomas Aubert (1677), Bayardo (1738), Schloesser (1792) and Sarah Prieels (1180).
The 2019 Indoor Archery World Series continues with the Nimes Tournament on 18-20 January 2019.
The Roma Archery Trophy is the third stage of the 2019 Indoor Archery World Series.
