Schloesser, Lopez retain World Archery Athlete of the Year titles in 2019

Hyundai Archery World Cup Champions Mike Schloesser and Sara Lopez retained their World Archery Athlete of the Year titles for 2019. It is the third time Mike has won the award (2016, 2018, 2019) and the fifth consecutive trophy for Sara (2015-present).

World Archery Champion Brady Ellison and world number one Kang Chae Young were named the best recurve archers of last year.

Brady previously received the award in 2011, 2014 and 2016.

These four winners were announced ahead of the Indoor Archery World Series Finals on Saturday 8 February in Las Vegas, USA, following public and expert votes held throughout January 2020.

Schloesser went on to take the indoor circuit champion title.

There will be subsequent ceremonies at relevant events to recognise winners in the para men, para women, breakthrough, coach and judge of the year categories.

Both para trophies were won by the compound open gold medallists from the 2019 World Archery Para Championships in ’s-Hertogenbosch, the USA’s Ben Thompson and Alim Nur Syahidah of Singapore.

Alim’s world title was the first won by a Singaporean archer.

Bangladesh’s Ruman Shana and Martin Frederick were chosen as breakthrough athlete and coach of 2019, following the 24-year-old’s historic bronze medal at the world championships. The podium finish qualified Bangladesh’s first spot to an Olympic Games.

Karla Cabrera is the first judge of the year.

The new category was introduced for 2019 to recognise outstanding officiating at World Archery events.

Awards 2019: The winners

• Recurve men: Brady Ellison, USA
• Recurve women: Kang Chae Young, Korea
• Compound men: Mike Schloesser, Netherlands
• Compound women: Sara Lopez, Colombia
• Para men: Ben Thompson, USA
• Para women: Alim Nur Syahidah, Singapore
• Breakthrough: Ruman Shana, Bangladesh
• Coach: Martin Frederick, Bangladesh
• Judge: Karla Cabrera, Philippines

World Archery Athlete of the Year awards are decided by public and expert vote.