The Indoor World Series Final took place on the Las Vegas stage, crowning this year's champions.
The Indoor World Series spans across four stages: Luxembourg, Chinese Taipei, Nîmes and Las Vegas (2-5 February). These all lead up to the finals held on the Sunday of the Las Vegas shoot. Archers can earn points at the different stages depending on where they finish, and the top 16 are taken from the people with the highest points. These archers then compete in head-to-heads to find the overall Indoor World Series champion.
After a strong performance with both a first place in Luxembourg and a fourth place in Nîmes, GB's Ella Gibson earned herself a top 16 place. She went into the matches in fifth position.
"I think there was a point in my first match where I had a really long hold and managed to shoot the arrow and shot like a three quarter shaft X. That was probably a turning point because I know that I can have some longer holds than usual and slower than usual and still hit the middle. It was really important and gave me a bit of a confidence boost, knowing that even if I am nervous and even if I’m shooting slow it doesn’t matter, I can still hit the middle," Ella said.
First, she faced Estonia’s Meeri-Marita Paas who she beat by 6 points, 147-141. Then she shot an almost perfect 149 against Paas’ teammate, Lisell Jaatma. In the semi finals, Ella came up against Linda Ochoa-Anderson, who she beat by two points with 147-145. This meant that Ella was set to shoot against world number 15, Elisa Roner from Italy.
"I found all my matches quite hard. But at the end of the day, I think when we’re down to the World Series Final, every match that you have is going to be a challenge because everyone there is a good archer. I’m really happy with how I shot through the matches and the level I shot at," Ella said.
The two women took the stage in the impressive Las Vegas arena. After the first two ends, the Italian was up by just one point, 59-58. Both women shot a 30 each in the third end, keeping the score difference at one. For the last two ends, the women each scored 29s, meaning that Roner took the win 147-146. Ella will bring home the silver medal.
"Nerves will always be there in a match, and I think it’s just important to remember that and deal with them as they come. For the most part I feel like I shot pretty well in the finals match, and it was just one of those days where I had a few that were a little bit out."
