Shanghai late arrival Braden back to winning form

The USA compound men’s team decided to skip the practice sessions in Shanghai in favour of sticking around back home and shooting the Redding Trail Shoot, a popular field competition.

Braden GELLENTHIEN, Reo WILDE, Steve ANDERSON and reigning Archery World Cup Final Champion Bridger DEATON arrived at the hotel in China at 9:30pm on Tuesday night.

Compound men’s qualification was less than 24 hours later.

“I shot around 36 or 40 arrows on the practice field as fast as I could, just getting through the arrows and trying to wake my body up,” said Braden. 

“I was still a little slow at the start of the ranking round. I opened up with a seven but then I think shot eight 60s over the rest of the day. I found my shot.”

GELLENTHIEN’s 713 topped the men’s field.

“I just hope I can translate it into a deep run into the head-to-heads tomorrow,” he added.

The number one seeding is a far cry from how Braden’s 2014 season ended. He tore some muscles in his forearm and was forced to shoot with an unfamiliar trigger for the team finals of the last stage of the last season in Wroclaw.

He had lost all of his finger strength. Braden explained the journey back: “A lot of physical therapy over the long offseason.” 

“Coupled with a couple of other health issues… I was just really excited to get back on the tour and shoot my best.”

Talking of best: Stephan HANSEN.

He set a new junior world record for the compound 50-metre ranking round just a couple of weeks ago in a selection shoot for the worlds later this year. 

That round was 714 total. Last year in Shanghai he shot 713 – which netted him the top seed – and, this year, 711 and a second place finish in qualifying. 

“The world record gave me a huge confidence boost before coming here,” HANSEN admitted.

“I was shooting well, I felt good and my equipment was really working… the only thing to manage here was my head!” 

GELLENTHIEN’s USA and HANSEN’s Denmark were the first and second ranked teams, respectively. 

Mr Perfect Mike SCHLOESSER, from the Netherlands, took the individual third seed and last year’s winner in Shanghai Sebastien PEINEAU the fourth spot. 

WILDE – in fifth – received a first round bye like top seed and teammate GELLENTHIEN, while the third of the four late arrivals, ANDERSON, missed out by a point in ninth.

Read more about Shanghai 2015.