Pearce, Barnes take top spots in Indoor World Series ranking with Sydney victories
Dave Barnes, Madeline Boyle, Tate Morgan and Paige Pearce took the titles at the 2020 Sydney Indoor Archery Festival. The wins pushed Barnes and Pearce to the top spots in the Indoor Archery World Series elite rankings.
“My scores were really consistent all through qualifying and matchplay and luckily that was enough to come out on top,” said Pearce.
“There weren’t as many shooters at this tournament but that makes it challenging in its own way. Without the depth, I put a lot more pressure on myself to perform well and that added pressure made me feel nervous.”
The world number three beat world-number-12 Chen Yi-Hsuan in the final after starting the tournament with a 595-point ranking round.
That score was the world record heading into this indoor season but has since been beaten twice. It now sits at 597.
“The level of compound women has been increasing more and more every year. Each competition is harder and harder,” said Pearce. “It just goes to show that we’re all working hard to improve our game and I know, as a division, we want to show everyone what we’re capable of.”
Sydney was the fourth 250-level tournament of the season. Paige has podiumed at three of them and scored points towards the elite ranking at all four.
The 250 elite ranking points she earned in Sydney gives her 525 in total and a 150-point lead on second-placed world record holder Sarah Prieels.
Dave Barnes also jumped into first in the rankings after winning his home stop on the tour.
The 33-year-old recurve man previously finished third at the Macau Open for 125 points. Barnes’ 375-point total leads Crispin Duenas on 300 and other stage winners Marco Galiazzo and Ko Dusol on 250.
He beat James Gaze, 6-4, in the final in Sydney.
Barnes is now two years into his return to competitive archery. He went to the Olympic Games in 2004 but stepped away from the sport in 2007. He returned to the Australian team in late 2018.
Top-seeded compound man Tate Morgan defeated number-two-ranked Jai Francis, 146-145, in their gold medal match at the Sydney Indoor Archery Festival.
Madeline Boyle upset favourite Sarah Haywood in the final of the recurve women’s event.
Boyle, who qualified two places behind Haywood in third, took the match to a tiebreak and won the shoot-off with a nine that was closer to the middle.
The 2020 Sydney Indoor Archery Festival is the first event on the Indoor Archery World Series to be held in the Southern Hemisphere. It came at a testing time for the country, which is dealing with vicious bushfires.
“It’s smokey because of the fires but it’s still a beautiful city,” said compound women’s winner Pearce. “The people here are so nice and welcoming and that’s really made the trip better. The tournament ran like a breeze. We’ll definitely be back in the future.”
The remaining two events on the 2020 Indoor Archery World Series are 1000 level.
(The number describes how many elite ranking points an archer receives for winning and defines the facilities and coverage of the tournament.)
Nimes hosts the next competition on the circuit in just one week’s time.
The sixth and final stop is The Vegas Shoot, culminating with the 2020 Indoor Archery World Series Finals in the evening of Saturday 8 February.
The fourth event of the 2020 Indoor Archery World Series was the Sydney Indoor Archery Festival on Friday 10 to Sunday 12 January 2020.
