Recurve stabilisation
Everything you ever need to know - and a bit more
Lutz reproduced the nerveless form he produced in Antalya when he shot a 150 in his first international finals match. It wasn't perfect this time, but it was good enough, and Lutz became the first compound man from the USA to lift the trophy since Reo Wilde a decade ago – with fourth place finisher Braden Gellenthien turning straight around and coming back out to coach Lutz for the win.
In the women's competition, Paige Pearce and Natalia Avdeeva both had world champion titles to their names – Pearce as the reigning field archery world champion, and Adveeva as the reigning indoor archery world champion
– a crown she will retain indefinitely as it was recently decided that the 2018 indoor championships would be the last. With the nowrare sight of both Natalia and Paige shooting an index finger trigger release, Pearce opened with three nines, allowing the Russian world number 33 to take an early one point lead. It seemed like she would streak ahead, but both were scrappy until Pearce seized back momentum by going clean in the third end. Again, Natalia edged ahead in the fourth – and she hung on, needing a maximum with her final arrow to take victory. It landed – she turned to face her coach, asked for confirmation of the win, and let out a victory scream. The gold medal makes the experienced Russian the reigning indoor and outdoor world champion, and also the first Russian archer to hold a compound world title since Albina Loginova did so back-to-back in 2009 and 2011.
On recurve Sunday, the usual script of 'Korea wins everything' went firmly out the window. The Korean women's team – on paper, one of the more extraordinary teams ever assembled – lost to disciplined, focused and tactically aware shooting from Chinese Taipei, who finally and deservedly got one over on their main rivals. The stage was very much set for the women's individual final among the Asian superpowers. Kang Chae Young of Korea had not lost a match internationally in 2019, but Lei Chien-ying of Chinese Taipei had been in impeccable form during eliminations at this tournament, finishing three of her four matches with perfect sets of 30 points each.
Both women were on their third of three appearances on the stage after their team and mixed team medal matches.they each won a set of the final before splitting the third, both shooting 29 points. A nine and two eights from Lei in the third swung the momentum back towards the Korean. But in the fourth, Kang seemed to tense up, as Lei closed with a 10 to take the points with a 29 – and draw the match level. You sensed that the ultra-competitive Lei was more up for the challenge of the shootoff. Kang shot first, usually considered an advantage. She sent a seven low and left – easily the worst arrow she had shot all tournament. Lei stepped up and shot a nine - a bad nine, but it was enough. It was a superb breakthrough performance from the world's second team.
The competition closed with Brady Ellison beating Khairul Anuar Mohamad of Malaysia with a perfect arrow to become the first recurve men’s world champion from the USA since Rick Mckinney in 1985. While Brady was the overwhelming favourite in the final, having crushingly dominated two stages of the World Cup this year, his opponent – a perennial dangerman on the circuit – shot like he had nothing to lose and with a quality that proved he deserved to be on the top step. The first three sets were tied up. Brady took the fourth, Khairul won the fifth, and like the women's final, the world championship men's match went to a shoot-off. Brady's arrow was perfect, Khairul's was a bad eight.
Khairul’s silver is the first Malaysian medal in the history of the World Championships, as is Ruman Shana’s bronze for Bangladesh. But Brady Ellison's win was entirely deserved and caps an extraordinary recurve career - which is certainly not over yet (even if he has threatened several times to pack it all in and return to his compound roots). It was a fitting end to a superbly handled and intrigue-filled World Championships, the biggest festival of archery ever - which showed again what the sport is capable of.