The USA’s Dave Cousins beat Italy’s Valerio Della Stua, 145 to 143, to win gold at the TRUBall/Axcel Roma Archery Trophy on Sunday, December 15.
Rome was the third event of the 2020 Indoor Archery World Series, which will have its finals at The Vegas Shoot next February.
Cousins dropped five nines before finishing the 15-arrow match with two perfect ends to take victory – and afterwards said he was the most “nervous he’s been during matchplay due to all the champions in Rome”.
The 42-year-old compound archer won The Vegas Shoot Championship Men’s division twice: first in 1999 and then again in 2008. (He won the World Archery Championships in 1999, too.)
Dave was also joined on the podium in Rome by Mike Schloesser, another two-time Vegas Champion, who came third.
Compound woman Sarah Prieels of Belgium and recurve archers Marco Galiazzo of Italy and Kang Chae Young of Korea, who have each attended The Vegas Shoot multiple times, took their respective category titles.
The TRUBall/Axcel Roma Archery Trophy also featured barebow and longbow competitions; there are also categories for these bowstyyle at the Vegas Shoot.
The Indoor Archery World Series awards elite, open and team ranking points over its six stages. Sixteen recurve men, recurve women, compound men and compound women – those highest in the ranking –are invited to take part in the Indoor Archery World Series Finals in Vegas.
The indoor tour now moves to Sydney and Nimes in January before landing in Vegas in February.