Steve Wijler, Kris Schaff, Natalia Avdeeva and Kim Surin took gold medals at the third stage of the 2017/18 Indoor Archery World Cup in Nimes, France, jumping up the rankings and putting themselves in qualifying positions for the Final in Las Vegas.

“I’m just having a great weekend here and I didn’t expect anything from it. I was really happy to be in the final against Brady, because he’s an icon of the sport, and shoot against him,” said Wijler, who made his debut for the Netherlands at stage one of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Shanghai in 2017, and won gold.

“I just try to have fun in archery and do my technique. If I have a fun day, then it’s fine.”

The match came down to the last set. Wijler shot 10-10-10; Ellison 9*-10-10 – and the first arrow was ruled out.

“A bad shot, I was aiming really well and I wanted it to go off and I tried to force it. It went off and it could have been there and it could not have been,” said Ellison. “That’s perfectly fine, but I shot a bad match.

After missing the first two stages of the season, the normally ever-present Ellison still collected valuable ranking points in the race to the Indoor Archery World Cup Final in Las Vegas.

“It’s getting to the point, now, that in recurve men you can’t miss. It’s a can’t miss game and it’s getting exciting,” Brady added.