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Gupta wins maiden gold medal in shoot-off victory over Ellison

15 February 2025

Chicago, USA

Real name:

Devaang Gupta aiming at the Great Chicago Open.

Devaang Gupta upset the archery applecart on Friday night to win his maiden individual international gold medal at The Great Chicago Open against all-time great Brady Ellison.

Coming into the match up, Gupta had just one medal to his name, a recurve men’s team silver from the 2024 Pan American Championships, whereas for Ellison?

A collection of 92, won from a variety of World Cups, World Championships and Olympics, not to mention the many more the American has achieved indoors and on the Americas continent from nearly two decades of experience at the highest level.

Therefore, Gupta’s valiance in Illinois is extraordinary to say the least, but the gold medal match produced the drama this sport always seemingly produces, as the top podium was decided by a shoot-off after the pair were tied 5-5 in set points.

Gupta’s triumphant shot deemed closer to the all important bull’s eye than Ellison’s.

“My shoulders are definitely tired, so I’m looking forward to going back to bed and get a good night’s sleep,” said Gupta, who seeded second with 595 points, behind Ellison with 597 in the morning’s qualifications.

“It’s just having the experience. I’ve been in a few final matches. I never won those, so just building up those experiences and learning.”

Those experiences certainly paid heavy dividends in Festival Hall with the 24-year-old now having picked up the maximum 250 valuable ranking points on offer as well, before he and the rest of the archery elite head to Las Vegas next month for the ultimatum of the indoor season, the Indoor World Series Finals.

Gupta may not have been the most popular figure in Chicago, however, as all four of his opponents en route to the top podium were American, but the Canadian stayed steadfast in arguably the most important ingredient for archery, mental focus.

“I was focusing on maintaining my heartbeat and not getting super excited when I was ahead. This is a first and I’m glad it’s a gold,” he added.

Despite Ellison’s disappointment, the host nation did have something to cheer about with his Paris mixed team bronze medallist teammate Casey Kaufhold in the recurve women.

James Lutz, Mike Schloesser and Mathias Fullerton on the 2025 Great Chicago Open podium.

Pennsylvania’s Kaufhold dispatched Colombian veteran and fellow Olympian Ana Maria Rendon 6-4 wrapping up the gold, her first medal of the year and the 2025 indoor season.

The 20-year-old shot two perfect scores in the match, averaging 9.73 an arrow against Rendon, with one of them coming in the final end to book her tenth Indoor World Series medal.

This victory however meant more to Kaufhold than most after the reigning Pan American Champion admitted having anxiety earlier in qualifications.

“I felt a lot more comfortable today in matches compared to qualifications,” said a relieved Kaufhold, who also revealed that she has started working with multiple sports psychologists since Nimes, her last competition. “In qualification I got on a really good streak, but then I got nervous at the end, because I knew I was coming up on the world record.”

“My shot and my mental broke down a little bit whereas later I felt a lot more consistent. I had some nines but every nine I shot I was like ‘Okay, that felt like a nine’, so I was able to assess what I did wrong and then make a good shot.”

There was more than enough assurance on display by Mike Schloesser, at least on the face of it, as he continued his near unstoppable form in arenas, claiming his fourth gold of the season in the compound men’s discipline.

With Chicago being the fourth of six stops in archery’s premier international indoor circuit, Schloesser now travels to Las Vegas having won over 50 per cent of available golds.

‘Mister Perfect’ put the cherry on top of his own cake in the medal match against Tlaxcala 2024 Hyundai World Cup Final winner James Lutz, after dropping a familiar 600 in the morning qualifying, but the length of the competition he said did take a toll.

“It was a long day, a lot of matches, a lot of arrows,” said the world number one. “In the middle I had a little bit of a dump. I started thinking a lot and not shooting my shots like I wanted to, but in the end I was lucky to have a little bit of a gap between the semifinals and the gold final.”

“I started focusing on the execution of my shots and that helped me a lot.”

Las Vegas is the final stop of the Indoor World Series, as the world’s best archers travel once again to the USA, first competing in the Vegas Shoot on 5-9 March, shortly followed by the circuit finals on 8 March, that is also taking place in Las Vegas.