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Shanghai 2024: Former world champ Wiener returns to finals arena

25 April 2024

Shanghai, China

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Nico Wiener beats Mathias Fullerton in a Shanghai shoot-off.

Nico Wiener’s fist pumped the air as he walked away from his quarterfinal tiebreak against reigning Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion Mathias Fullerton with a better 10.

That arrow booked the giant Austrian an appearance in the second compound men’s final four of his career – after Gwangju in 2022 – where he’ll face Korea’s Yang Jaewon, under-21 world champion Priyansh and Nick Kappers, who was third last year in Medellin at his circuit debut.

“I’m super happy,” said Wiener, who won the World Archery Championships in 2021.

“It was difficult to shoot against Mathias. Everyone knows he is the best at the moment. He is super good. Sometimes you’ve got to be lucky as well. Today, I was lucky maybe. But when you make the top four, you’ve got to be good, right? I’m trying to get better every day.”

Seeded first, Fullerton shot back-to-back 149s and a 150-point match before tying Wiener on 145 in the last eight. He’ll finish this event ranked seventh.

The top compound women’s qualifier, Andrea Becerra, survived her bracket without a scare, knocking out reigning World Archery Champion Aditi Swami in the quarterfinals. Becerra was runner-up to Swami at the championships last summer.

India does have a compound women’s semifinalist – Asian Games Champion Jyothi Surekha Vennam – while Meeri-Marita Paas and Alexis Ruiz complete the line-up.

“Today was difficult. I was a bit shaky,” said Becerra.

The Mexican 23-year-old collected the first pole of her career after shooting a 10-point competition best during Tuesday’s qualifying round.

“I try to be confident all the time but, most of the time, I’m second-guessing myself which I think I need to work on. I will try to control it. In the end, I just managed to put the feelings aside and play my shots. It worked.”

“Hopefully it will be better on Saturday.”

Conditions during today’s eliminations got choppy, far less calm than the still air that produced such huge scores over the last two days of qualifying.

This is Estonian archer Meeri-Marita Paas’ first final four. Her previous best result was eighth at the stage in Lausanne in 2021.

Alexis Ruiz just won the Pan American Championships in Medellin but she hasn’t made a podium on the Hyundai Archery World Cup since 2019 – when she took a medal at all four, won the last stage of the year and ascended to the number one spot in the world rankings.

Competition in Shanghai continues with mixed team eliminations on Friday morning, followed by recurve eliminations in the afternoon.