Official draw takes place at Moscow 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final

The official competition brackets for the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final in Moscow were decided in the evening of 4 September – as the full athlete roster assembled just off Red Square in a ballroom at Moscow’s famous high-end department store GUM.

This tournament is unique. There’s no ranking round. The eight qualifiers in each category go straight into quarterfinal matches. 

For some archers, those 15 arrows will be the only competition shots they loose in the Russian capital. But for those who make it past the first round, it’s a chance to climb the podium in the finals arena built next to Luzhniki Stadium.

It’s the second year in a row that the positions in the brackets are drawn randomly.

RECURVE MEN

•  Brady Ellison/ Artem Makhnenko
•  Sjef van den Berg/ Steve Wijler
•  Mauro Nespoli/ Bae Jaehyeon
•  Mete Gazoz/ Kim Woojin

Vanessa Lee’s analysis: “Mete Gazoz versus Kim Woojin is going to be a very big match. Someone would have expected it to be a gold or semifinal match, but in the first round, it’s hard. Bae and Kim, as well as van den Berg and Wijler, are standing on the same side of the brackets. It will be interesting.”

It’s the second year in a row that Brady is drawn against the host representative. Second seed Mete Gazoz has defending champion Kim Woojin in his first match. It’s hard not to feel for Sjef and Steve, the two Dutch archers meeting each other in the first round.

RECURVE WOMEN

•  Tan Ya-Ting/ Tomomi Sugimoto
•  Melanie Gaubil/ An Qixuan
•  Zheng Yichai/ Ksenia Perova
•  Kang Chae Young/ Sayana Lee

Vanessa Lee’s analysis: “Kang Chae Young is a very calm and collected person. She’s going to focus on what she’s doing and matter who she’s facing, she’s going to be okay. Tan Ya-Ting is going to be interesting because she’s already number one ranked but she’s going against Sugimoto, who she lost to this year. Both Zheng and Perova struggle here and there. Perova might not be strong in rankings but when it comes to matches, that’s when you see the fire in her eyes.”

The two Russian archers are on one side of the bracket. China’s An and Zheng take opposite halves. Which is a better situation? This is a purely individual event and you never want to shoot against your teammate. Follow the winner of Tan Ya-Ting versus Tomomi Sugimoto.

COMPOUND MEN

•  Mike Schloesser/ Jozef Bosansky
•  Anton Bulaev/ James Lutz
•  Daniel Munoz/ Sergio Pagni
•  Braden Gellenthien/ Evren Cagiran

Vanessa Lee’s analysis: “As far as I know, the way the matches ended up today, none of these archers have shot against each other before in the World Cup circuit, at least not this year. The big match is going to be Anton Bulaev versus James Lutz. You have the World Archery Champion, undefeated this season, against someone with the home crowd advantage. It looks like Lutz has no fear when he shoots.”

Reigning World Archery Champion James Lutz takes on host representative Anton Bulaev in the first round. If he wins that, the odds are on facing top seed Mike Schloesser. It was Lutz that knocked Schloesser out of the world championships, 149-149 and then with a closer 10 in the shoot-off.

COMPOUND WOMEN

•  Alexis Ruiz/ Natalia Avdeeva
•  Tanja Jensen/ Danelle Wentzel
•  Toja Ellison/ Sophie Dodemont
•  Sara Lopez/ So Chaewon

Vanessa Lee’s analysis: “So Chaewon and Sara Lopez’s match really called my attention. They met at the last World Cup Final in Samsun in 2018 and Lopez beat So in the semifinals before going to take on the gold. It will be a good match. Tanja Jensen and Danelle Wentzel met previously this year at the Antalya stage. The South African beat Jensen in the third round, and eventually won the event to qualify to the Final.”

This is probably the most even competition in Moscow. Reigning World Archery Champion Natalia Avdeeva and world number one Alexis Ruiz face-off in the quarterfinals – that’s a match and a half.

The 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final takes place on 6-7 September in Moscow, Russia.