Brady Ellison, Casey Kaufhold, Nico Wiener and Tanja Gellenthien became the 2025 Indoor Archery World Series Champions on the Planet Hollywood stage on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas.
The 16 top-ranked archers over the indoor season in each category shot down in the morning to set up the gold medal matches; points towards the elite rankings were accrued since October across six stages held in Lausanne, Luxembourg, Taipei, Nimes, Chicago and Vegas.
For Ellison and Kaufhold, the wins came back-to-back with the Vegas Shoot titles, Brady winning his outright yesterday, and Casey surviving a shootdown with Victoria Sebastian.
It gave them, of course, the advantage of competition experience on the big stage for this final. For Ellison, it was a successful defence of the title he won here last year, and for Kaufhold, who turned 21 this week, one better on the runner-up spot she achieved last year.
For the first time at the competition, the World Series finals were held on Sunday as part of the showcase final event, sandwiched between Vegas championship shootdowns and the main compound open shootdown, which must have forced some decisions about energy levels and bow setups for some competitors.
Kaufhold – coached here by her mother Carol – had to face fellow Paris alumni Lisa Barbelin for the recurve women’s title. The two left-handers, both bronze medallists at the recent Paris 2024 Olympic Games, traded points before Kaufhold edged ahead in the third after a judge’s call. Barbelin produced a powerful 30 to take the fourth, and they both shot clean to force a shoot-off. Both produced an 10 high and right, but Kaufhold’s was a fraction closer.
That opener, however, would be the closest match of the final. Ellison had to face the 2020 Olympic Champion Mete Gazoz; both had also medalled in Paris. Gazoz never seemed to quite settle on the stage, leaving three extremely wayward arrows on the face in three ends. A very relaxed Brady, on point, didn’t miss once. It didn’t take long.
