Nearly 4000 archers to close indoor season at world’s largest archery event in Las Vegas

The inaugural Indoor Archery World Series opened in Luxembourg, then visited Macau and Rome, in late 2018 across a trio of 250-level events.

Nimes in France came after the New Year, offering 1000 points to stage winners, before the annual traditional grand finale to the indoor season in Las Vegas.

Celebrating its 53rd year, the Vegas Shoot has set yet another record for attendance in 2019 by attracting over 3750 registrations for the first time in its history. 

Just over 500 of them are shooting in the championship divisions – and so many more people attend the event to soak up the unparalleled atmosphere of the most inclusive and largest indoor archery tournament in the world. 

Factsheet: Vegas Shoot 2019

• Venue: South Point Hotel and Casino
• Dates: 8-10 February
• Number of athletes: 3767 (championship divisions – 270 compound men, 114 compound women, 67 recurve men, 47 recurve women)
• Points: 1000 series ranking points for the top-ranked archers after day two; top 64-ranked score
• Streaming: Live Indoor Archery World Series Final gold medal matches on Saturday 9 February, live Vegas Shootdowns on Sunday 10 February – watch on World Archery’s Facebook page or YouTube channel

Schedule

Friday 8 February: Vegas day one

Saturday 9 February: Vegas day two, Indoor Archery World Series Final

Sunday 10 February: Vegas day three, shootdowns

Circuit leaders

• Recurve men: Lee Seungyun – 1000 points
• Recurve women: Kang Chae Young – 1125 points
• Compound men: Braden Gellenthien – 1300 points
• Compound women: Janine Meissner – 1030 points (not competing)

Favourites

This fifth stage of the Indoor Archery World Series is all about securing enough points to finish in the top 16 of the elite rankings and get an invite to the circuit final on Saturday evening in Vegas.

With list leader Janine Meissner absent, look for defending Vegas Champion Alexis Ruiz or Korea’s So Chaewon – second and third – to make a run in the compound women’s event.

Jesse Broadwater won the Indoor Archery World Cup in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

He’s only 16th in the compound men’s ranking, but is likely to make the cut and has had a recent monopoly of the nighttime head-to-heads.

Braden Gellenthien, the top-ranked in the division so far, has had an excellent season, taking two wins from three events. World number one Mike Schloesser has also been in the mix at each competition this indoor season.

The Korean recurve contingent had completed its transfer of outdoor dominance to the indoor circuit over the past few seasons.

Lisa Unruh upset that trend in 2018, winning the recurve women’s title at the last Indoor Archery World Cup, while Brady Ellison came second in the men‘s event. 

With 27 recurve archers in Vegas – among them Olympic Champions Ku Bonchan, Oh Jin Hyek and Chang Hye Jin – Korea is still favourite to put up winners from one of its pro teams. But, in Vegas, there is no such thing as a sure thing.

The Vegas Shoot is the fifth stage and hosts the final of the 2019 Indoor Archery World Series.