Brady Ellison begins his Indoor World Series defence by poling in Rio
It looks as if no warm-up process is needed for Brady Ellison as he poled brilliantly on Friday at the Rio Indoor 250 to begin his Indoor World Series defence.
It's been 278 days since the American great won his fourth World Series Final in March, and he is back like he never left, dropping an astonishing 597 on his return to archery's premier international indoor circuit.
The score is also two off Ellison's world record and the highest qualification score at 18 metres so far in the 2025 Series, following the Swiss Open Lausanne 2025, GT Open and Taipei Archery Open.
“Today's just going to kind of be getting the body loose after flying yesterday and then tomorrow's is the eliminations and that's where it really matters,” said Ellison before the 60-arrow round.
“I've been down to Brazil several times now with the Pan Ams and the Olympics. It's nice to come back to the city.”
“Right now it's like -20 degrees at my house and snowing, so to be able to wear shorts and t-shirts again is pretty nice.”
Rio is the only location on the World Series calendar located in the southern hemisphere, where December is peak sunshine and beach weather rather than cold and hot drinks, which will be a strange environment for Ellison and others, even though they are shooting in an air-conditioned Parque Olímpico.
This year's Hyundai Archery World Cup Final gold medallist, however, brought the ice-coolness from Montana to the heat of Copacabana with no problem through his exceptional archery, landing 57 of the 60 arrows into the minute 10-ring.
What adds to this fine start is the competitiveness of the 39-strong recurve men contingent in Brazil.
Five archers, including Ellison, dropped at least 590, with home favourite and Gwangju 2025 Hyundai World Archery Championships runner-up Marcus D’Almeida getting second seed through a 595.
Paris silver medallist Ellison lightly joked in his TV interview post-Nanjing that at 37 he's still keeping up with the young guns of the sport, and indoors it looks to be the same.
He'll be a force to be reckoned with once again this season.
Elsewhere, there were two dominant conclusions to qualifications in the compound men and women categories.
The women's world champion Andrea Becerra accumulated 598 in her first appearance on the 2026 Series, a staggering 11 more points than fellow Mexican Dafne Quintero [587] in second, whilst Mathias Fullerton nabbed his maiden pole position this season, also with 598 and five more points ahead of Swiss Open victor Ajay Scott [593].
The second day of archery at the Rio Indoor 250 begins this morning local time with individual eliminations, followed by the under-21 and barebow finals.
Compound and recurve finals take place on Sunday which you can watch live on archery+ from 13h00 UTC time.
Top seeds: Rio Indoor 250
- Recurve men: Brady Ellison, USA – 597
- Recurve women: Isabelle Trindade Estevez Pereira, Brazil – 586
- Compound men: Mathias Fullerton, Denmark – 598
- Compound women: Andrea Becerra, Mexico – 598
