Pearce defends as Cousins collects third career world field title

Two decades on from his first world field title, Dave Cousins topped the podium once again – and for the third time in his career – as he joined Cinzia Noziglia, David Jackson, Chiara Rebagliati, Florian Unruh and Paige Pearce as the individual winners at the 2022 World Archery Field Championships in Yankton, South Dakota, USA.

Cousins beat reigning outdoor World Archery Champion Nico Wiener by three points in the compound men’s final.

“It’s a really long path to get to the final for one of these. This is a process for us that started back in May with the team trials, then all summer thinking about this and physically working and from a technical aspect,” said the 45-year-old, visibly emotional after being announced the winner.

“Yeah, it’s just been a long journey.”

Cousins pulled ahead a point on the first target, a 15-metre downhill bunny, then earned another on the second, a 50-metre big face. The match was all but done after the first arrow of the fourth target, Cousins’ experience evident as he nailed a perfect on the 35-metre shot, hoisted up towards the clouds on a crane.

His win brought the second individual title for the host team from the USA after Paige Pearce beat Toja Ellison, in a shoot-off, at the second consecutive World Archery Field Championships.

This match was tighter than the final in 2018 (and the pair were easily the highest-scoring of all the compounders today, both beating Cousins’ second-best total by five to tie at 70 points apiece). Pearce needed a perfect last target to force the tiebreak.

“I’m still totally shaking, I can’t believe it worked out that way. But I wouldn’t expect anything less from Toja, she’s amazing,” said Paige after her max-score shoot-off arrow was measured closer to the middle of the target.

“Field is my favourite part of archery. This title means more to me than any of them.”

Both winners of the recurve events – Chiara Rebagliati and Florian Unruh – were just a few months removed from winning the field archery events at the World Games, which were delayed from 2021 and also held in the USA.

The barebow champions, meanwhile, were the same two archers that won the world 3D championships last month.

David Jackson is the first French barebow man to take gold since the launch of the World Archery Field Championships in 1969, while Cinzia Noziglia completed an historic triple in 2022 with gold in Yankton. She has now won the World Games, world 3D and world field all in the same year.

Jackson replaced three-time back-to-back champion Erik Jonsson as title holder.

Jonsson finished off the individual podium for the first time since 2012 after losing to Swedish teammate Martin Ottosson in the bronze medal match. He did win gold in the first barebow mixed team event – with partner Lina Bjorklund – yesterday in Yankton.

Unruh called his win in the recurve men’s event, “the perfect end to the season”.

He trailed Matt Nofel after the first target but quickly recovered and possessed a comfortable three-point lead arriving on the last tricky target. He shot quickly, explaining afterwards that it was to combat the steep upward incline potentially causing time issues, and his opponent couldn’t deliver the perfect arrows that would have been necessary to mount a comeback.

Unruh beat Brady Ellison in the final of the World Games in July. Ellison coached Nofel for this final, another losing effort, here.

World titles were also awarded to under-21 archers in the compound men’s, recurve men’s and recurve women’s categories. Dustin Watson, Francho Rufas and Aiko Rolando collected the gold medals.

Champions: Yankton 2022

• Recurve men: Florian Unruh, Germany
• Recurve women: Chiara Rebagliati, Italy
• Compound men: Dave Cousins, USA
• Compound women: Paige Pearce, USA
• Barebow men: David Jackson, France
• Barebow men: Cinzia Noziglia, Italy

Medal table: Yankton 2022

Countries with at least one gold medal listed.

1.  Italy: 9 (5 gold, 4 silver)
2.  USA: 6 (3 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)
3.  France: 7 (2 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze)
4.  Sweden: 4 (2 gold, 2 bronze)
5.  Germany: 4 (1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)
6.  Spain: 2 (1 gold, 1 silver)
7.  Canada: 1 (1 gold)

Archers from 14 countries collected the 45 medals (15 gold, 15 silver, 15 bronze) available at the 2022 World Archery Field Championships.