Indoor World Archery Challenge – Las Vegas Here We Come

World Archery Challenge – Las Vegas Here We Come Lausanne - 5 February 2010   The first ever World Archery Challenge will take place in Las Vegas in two weeks and will combine the results of the two biggest indoor tournaments worldwide. The first leg was held in Nimes end of January and saw some fantastic finals.   Recurve Men The winner of Nimes Michelle FRANGILLI (ITA) is the clear favourite. Brady ELLISON (USA), who finished 4th in the European leg, is expected to be the strongest challenger. Brady won the Las Vegas event last year and will have the home advantage. Two other archers to watch will be Thomas AUBERT (FRA) and Jean-Charles VALLADONT (FRA), members of the silver medal winning team in Ulsan, Korea.    Recurve Women The highest entered archer for the moment is Marina NAYROLLE (FRA) who finished 3rd in Nimes. However it is expected that there will be some late entries and surprises are expected in this event!   Compound Men The odds are in favour of a repeat of the final of Nimes between Jesse BROADWATER (USA) and Braden GELLENTHIEN (USA). However last year’s runner up in Las Vegas, Morgan LUNDIN (SUE) and former World Champion Dietmar TRILLUS (CAN) are just behind in the provisional ranking. We cannot forget Dave COUSINS (USA) and Patrizio HOFER (SUI) who just couldn’t get it right in Nimes but who can produce the upset.   Compound Women Nichola SIMPSON (GBR) is the highest ranked archer from Nimes that has entered for Vegas and she is the two-time defending champion in Vegas. Her main competitors will be Sandrine VANDIONNANT-FRANGILLI (wife of Michele) and 2003 World Indoor Champion Gladys WILLEMS (BEL).   Entries are still open However all the above might change with more entries coming in, the deadline being the 15 February. A lot can change, especially in the recurve event. Many teams in Europe are in the final stages of the selection shoots for the European Indoor Championships; based on these results some of the archers might choose to go to Vegas for a last minute rehearsal or to win the World Archery Challenge.    Rankings Here are the provisional World Archery Challenge Rankings after the Nimes European Tournament. These ranking are based on the results in the Nimes Tournament, however only the archers who are attending both Nimes and Vegas will be ranked at the end. The archers that have registered for Las Vegas or have confirmed that they attend are marked in green.   Recurve Men  Recurve Women  Compound Men  Compound Women     A definitive ranking (after Nimes) and entry list will be published as soon as the Las Vegas Tournament has closed its entries. Based on the rules if an archer has obtained points in Nimes and is not attending Las Vegas his points will go to the next archer attending both events and the ranking will be redone. We remind also that the top 8 archers from the combined ranking of Nimes and Las Vegas will shoot the ¼ finals, ½ finals and medal finals of the first Indoor World Archery Challenge on Saturday evening in Vegas. The details of the program will be given at the registration in Las Vegas.   To register for Vegas please consult www.fieldarchery.com.   Tom DIELEN FITA Secretary General