Beginners’ guide to archery at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima

The road to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games continues with four more places available at the 2019 Pan American Games in the Peruvian capital of Lima. Archery is on the agenda for the 11th time and, for the first time, it includes both recurve and compound events.

Athletes from the Americas did not qualify many Olympic spaces at the world championships. In fact, only Mexico (one woman) and the USA (one man) have any quotas secured at all. Competition for the four spots available in Lima will be fierce.

Factsheet: Lima 2019

• Venue: Archery field at the Villa Maria de Triunfo
• Dates: 6-11 August
• Number of athletes: 84 from 17 nations (32 recurve men, 32 recurve women, 10 compound men, 10 compound women)
• Number of medals: 8 (four individual, two mixed team and two recurve team; there are no compound team events)

Defending champions

• Recurve men: Luis Alvarez, Mexico
• Recurve women: Khatuna Lorig, USA
• Recurve men team: Mexico
• Recurve women team: Colombia

Three facts

1) This is the first edition of the Pan American Games to include a compound competition. There are 10 compound men and 10 compound women participating in Lima, across individual and mixed team events.

It’s a small but high-quality group of athletes that includes the world number one ranked compound man, Braden Gellenthien, and the second-ranked compound woman in the world, Sara Lopez.

Recurve archery has been a fixture on the Pan American Games sports programme since the eighth edition held in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1979.

2) The finals of the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto brought drama as Mexico’s Luis Alvarez recovered from a miss to defeat Brady Ellison and take the recurve men’s title. Brady wasn’t happy about it.

Fast forward four years, he’s now world number one and the reigning world champion – and very much the favourite to right his perceived wrong and take gold in Lima. Ellison previously won the Pan American Games in Guadalajara in 2011.

3) Lima will award up to four quota places for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The top-ranked recurve mixed team and top-ranked recurve individuals not already qualified from the world championships will win spots.

(Spaces are limited to the top four finishers. Any not awarded inside the top four will be added to the final qualification tournament.)

Schedule

• Wednesday 7 August: Qualification and recurve team eliminations
• Thursday 8 August: Individual eliminations
• Friday 9 August: Individual eliminations
• Saturday 10 August: Mixed team eliminations and compound finals
• Sunday 11 August: Recurve finals

Favourites

The top five recurve archers from the Americas in the world rankings as of 3 August 2019. Overall world ranking given in brackets.

Recurve men

• Brady Ellison, USA  (1)
• Jack Williams, USA  (10)
• Crispin Duenas, Canada  (23)
• Marcus D’Almeida, Brazil  (25)
• Eric Peters, Canada  (38)

Recurve women

• Alejandra Valencia, Mexico  (10)
• Mackenzie Brown, USA  (49, not competing)
• Ana Paula Vazquez, Mexico  (61, not competing)
• Aida Roman, Mexico  (63)
• Mariana Avitia, Mexico  (69)

The top three compound archers that are competing in Lima in the world rankings as of 3 August 2019. Overall world rankings given in brackets.

Compound men

• Braden Gellenthien, USA  (1)
• Roberto Hernandez, El Salvador  (11)
• Daniel Munoz, Colombia  (16)

Compound women

• Sara Lopez, Colombia  (2)
• Paige Pearce, USA  (4)
• Andrea Becerra, Mexico  (25)

Competition format

Recurve athletes shoot at 122cm targets set 70 metres away, with 10 scoring zones. Competition starts with a 72-arrow ranking round, used to rank athletes, and is followed by an elimination bracket resolved using set system matchplay.

Athletes shoot sets of three arrows – and the highest-scoring athlete in the set receives two set points; a draw awards one set point to each athlete. The first athlete to six set points wins the match.

Mixed teams shoot sets of four arrows and teams shoot sets of six arrows, two arrows per athlete per set. The first team or mixed team to five set points wins the match.

Compound athletes shoot at 80cm targets set 50 metres away, with six scoring zones awarding 10 to five points (the outer four are removed). Competition starts with a 72-arrow ranking round, used to rank athletes, and is followed by an elimination bracket resolved using cumulative scoring matchplay.

Athletes shoot matches of 15 arrows, in five ends of three arrows, and the highest-scoring athlete wins the match. Mixed teams shoot 16 arrows, two arrows per athlete per end.

The archery competitions at the 2019 Pan American Games take place on 6-11 August in Lima, Peru.