Robles upsets Prieels, Pearce to take early lead in World Series ranking

Andrea Robles, Kris Schaff, Park Seon Jin and Ko Dusol took the individual titles at the Macau Open and take an early lead in the elite ranking for the 2020 Indoor Archery World Series. The most impressive of those wins was authored by Robles.

In a small but talented compound women’s field that included world number one Alexis Ruiz, world championship runner-up Paige Pearce and top seed Sarah Prieels, Robles stood out.

“I’m feeling really good. I’m feeling really happy that I [won], especially because it’s my first time at these events,” she said. “I’m just having fun with it, training my best and enjoying.”

Robles qualified fourth with 579 points and defeated Xu Lumeng and Natalie Duncan before facing Prieels in the semis.

A 146-point match had her upset the top seed by one. She needed just 141 to beat an off-pace Pearce by six in the final.

“It’s given me a lot of confidence. It’s also given me an opportunity to see where I need work. My mistakes, see what I did well, wrong,” said Andrea.

The indoor season has officially begun but Robles and the rest of the Philippines archery team are still shooting outdoors, too. The Southeast Asian Games – a major outdoor tournament for the region – take place at the start of December.

After shooting a perfect qualification, top-seeded compound man Mike Schloesser shot four perfect elimination matches – the equivalent of a second consecutive clean ranking round – to make the final.

He hadn’t dropped a point through two ends of the final against Kris Schaff, either. (One-hundred-and-twenty-six consecutive competition 10s in Macau, for those counting.)

But Schloesser’s seventh arrow hit the nine. Two more followed in the fourth end.

Schaff, who is the reigning Indoor Archery World Series Champion, shot 148 points for the final and stole victory at the Macau Open.

The recurve titles were contested between the numbers one and two seeds – all from Korean pro squads.

Top-ranked Ko Dusol beat Ulsan Namgu teammate Lee Jongyoung in four sets, 6-2, in the recurve men’s final.

Park Seon Jin upset her number-one-seeded Busan Metropolitan Corporation colleague Ha Siyeon in five. The first set decided it – Park shooting 28 points to Ha’s 26. They tied the rest: 30, 30, 29 and 30.

All four winners in Macau collect 250 points and take an early lead in the elite ranking for the 2020 Indoor Archery World Series.

Archery’s international indoor circuit continues at the GT Open in Strassen, Luxembourg in two weeks.

The first event of the 2020 Indoor Archery World Series was the Macau Open on Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 November 2019.