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Kaufhold, Ellison double up to win Indoor World Series titles

9 March 2025

Las Vegas, USA

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Casey Kaufhold wins 2025 Indoor World Series Finals and Vegas Shoot.

Brady Ellison, Casey Kaufhold, Nico Wiener and Tanja Gellenthien became the 2025 Indoor Archery World Series Champions on the Planet Hollywood stage on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas.

The 16 top-ranked archers over the indoor season in each category shot down in the morning to set up the gold medal matches; points towards the elite rankings were accrued since October across six stages held in Lausanne, Luxembourg, Taipei, Nimes, Chicago and Vegas.

For Ellison and Kaufhold, the wins came back-to-back with the Vegas Shoot titles, Brady winning his outright yesterday, and Casey surviving a shootdown with Victoria Sebastian.

It gave them, of course, the advantage of competition experience on the big stage for this final. For Ellison, it was a successful defence of the title he won here last year, and for Kaufhold, who turned 21 this week, one better on the runner-up spot she achieved last year.

For the first time at the competition, the World Series finals were held on Sunday as part of the showcase final event, sandwiched between Vegas championship shootdowns and the main compound open shootdown, which must have forced some decisions about energy levels and bow setups for some competitors.

Kaufhold – coached here by her mother Carol – had to face fellow Paris alumni Lisa Barbelin for the recurve women’s title. The two left-handers, both bronze medallists at the recent Paris 2024 Olympic Games, traded points before Kaufhold edged ahead in the third after a judge’s call. Barbelin produced a powerful 30 to take the fourth, and they both shot clean to force a shoot-off. Both produced an 10 high and right, but Kaufhold’s was a fraction closer.

That opener, however, would be the closest match of the final. Ellison had to face the 2020 Olympic Champion Mete Gazoz; both had also medalled in Paris. Gazoz never seemed to quite settle on the stage, leaving three extremely wayward arrows on the face in three ends. A very relaxed Brady, on point, didn’t miss once. It didn’t take long.

Tanja Gellenthien with husband Braden and son Thor in Vegas.

The women’s compound gold medal match saw Sarah Prieels, fresh from a victory in Chicago, face Tanja Gellenthien, who had failed to three-peat at the main Vegas Shoot but managed to fight through the morning brackets.

A painfully tense first end saw both archers dropping points and missing a degree of fluency.

Gellenthien is now the mother of a seven-month-old and had earlier, understandably, admitted not being able to practice as much as she wanted to. But Prieels looked unsettled and twitchy throughout and was clearly struggling with her process. The title would be Gellenthien’s, 147-144 – but you got the distinct sense that neither of them would have wanted to watch that one again.

The compound men’s final between 2021 World Champion Nico Wiener and European Indoor Champion Nicolas Girard was, in the end, one-sided.

Wiener was machine-like, focused and driven, producing non-stop strong tens, whereas Girard was his usual relaxed self. But a fraction of a second’s inattention in the second set seemed to unravel him. He dropped a point each in the next two ends, and it was long gone, Wiener running perfect to win 150-147.

It was at least a big show to round off a great indoor world season, with six superb legs, and a final that was – at the least – very, very Vegas.