Gibson sets two records, overtakes Lopez on all-time top scores

British world number one Ella Gibson has set two world records for distances on the 1440 Round, subject to ratification, during the British Target Championships to move ahead of the legendary Sara Lopez in the number of all-time top scores shot by compound women outdoors.

Gibson will now hold five of the eight, Lopez the remaining three.

The two latest records that the British archer has broken – 36 arrows at both 70 metres and 30 metres, shot as part of the four-distance 1440 Round (formerly the FITA and used as the international qualifying round prior to the introduction of the now-standard 72-arrow 50-metre format) – were the last still held by other archers.

Gibson scored 354 points at 70 metres, one more than Kristina Heigenhauser’s previous world best from 2011, and a perfect 360 points at 30 metres – beating Jamie Van Natta’s 2009 distance record on X-count, 29 to 27.

Although the breakout star of 2022 hasn’t found the same matchplay success this season as last, when she went unbeaten through three stages of the Hyundai Archery World Cup and won the World Games, she has continued to make the latter stages of major events with silver medals at the second stop of the international circuit in Shanghai and at the European Games.

Gibson has had more success pursuing records so far in 2023, having already set the double-72-arrow 50-metre mark and finally beating Lopez’s qualifying round best in June in Krakow.

Both Gibson and Lopez, as well as the newly-crowned World Archery Champion, Indian 17-year-old Aditi Swami, are back in international action this week for the fourth stage of the 2023 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Paris.

Gibson and Lopez are already near-locks for this year’s Hyundai Archery World Cup Final, ranking second and third – with a comfortable buffer – in the circuit leaderboard arriving in the French capital, while Swami sits on the bubble in ninth and behind two Indian teammates.