The Netherlands. Nimes, France. Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And Las Vegas.
With all four of the world’s four premiere indoor events in the history books, Team Easton competitors have once again dominated the world in competition with the X23, X27, X10, and Superdrive 23 and 27.
Nimes European Indoor
The first World Level 1000 Point event of the indoor season took place in late January in Nimes, France, and once again Team Easton competitors took the majority of the medals with a total sweep of the recurve podiums with the Easton X10, and a total sweep of the Men’s Compound Finals.
American archer Kris Schaff defeated Easton teammate Mathias Fullerton of Denmark in the compound final before a crowd of thousands of excited spectators at the famous arena in the French Riviera, as the Sud de France – Nimes Archery Tournament 2023 saw a welcome return to pre-pandemic participation and spectator levels. 2000 competitors took part.
It was a total sweep of every recurve podium for the Easton X10 with French star Thomas Chirault and Italian competitor Tatiana Andreoli taking the men’s and women’s recurve titles, respectively. With Nimes rankings now potentially counting for Paris Olympic slots with World Archery’s new ranking system, where indoor events count toward Olympic Games participation, there was more than just the usual level of tension – and the forgiving finger release characteristics of the X10 proved unbeatable in the high pressure arena of Nimes.
Lancaster
Lancaster Archery’s acclaimed, world-class, 2000-shooter Classic saw 2022 Vegas Champion and 16-year old archery prodigy Bodie Turner, after two perfect qualifying round scores, prevail in a tight final against fellow Team Easton archer Kris Schaff to top the podium at Lancaster in the premiere Open Pro category.
Both Bodie and Kris relied on the incredibly precise Easton X23 shaft for their stunning performances.
And, two-time Vegas Champion Liko Arreola stormed her way to the bronze medal in the women’s compound final with the Easton Superdrive.
In men’s recurve, Easton shooters swept the podium with Brady Ellison winning his first major championship of the year. He took home his gold in the final against runner-up Jack Williams, and India’s Sachin Gupta taking third.
In women’s recurve, Olympian Casey Kaufhold defeated Netherlands top seed Gaby Schloesser in the gold medal final, with Savannah Vanderweir taking the bronze again to give Easton shooters another recurve podium sweep.
Vegas. The Super Bowl of Archery.
The 2023 Vegas Shoot – the 57th edition of this world-famous event- saw almost 4000 competitors come from around the world to Las Vegas and the Team Easton booth was swamped by competitors and their families clamoring for Easton swag and gear. Our team fielded thousands of questions and compliments for our quality from shooters from all over the world.
USA’s Schaff Makes Vegas History With Easton’s Ultimate Indoor Shaft
Kris SCHAFF of Billings, Montana has achieved a rare and singular series of titles this season, dominating three of archery’s most prestigious events with the most-winning indoor arrow of all time- the Easton X7 series.
Wielding the Easton X23 aluminum shaft, Schaff left his mark on the first major event of 2023, the Nimes European Indoor, charging his way to the Champion’s podium with a first place finish in Europe’s largest archery event.
Less than week later, he nearly repeated this success, taking second to Bodie Turner, also shooting Easton X7’s, at the Lancaster Classic, America’s second-largest event.
And now, Kris has achieved the dream of countless archery competitors with victory in the Open Compound event at the world’s most competitive and largest event in the sport- The 57th Vegas Shoot. In front of a crowd of thousands, Schaff trusted his Easton X27’s to take the $57,000 prize from a field of 26 competitors, 24 of whom, like Kris, had achieved a perfect 900- and one Lucky Dog contestant.
With the field being divided by half on every grueling, nerve wracking shootoff pass, at the end, it was Kris who stood alone with nothing but inside-x tens to take the Vegas title.
Kris recently visited the Easton SLC factory, where he recorded an episode of the Easton Target Archery Podcast to talk about his incredible Vegas win, and you can hear it here:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/easton-target-archery-podcast/id1033661330?i=1000601368238
Easton shooters also swept the World Archery Indoor Series, with complete podium sweeps of men’s and women’s recurve, as well as first (Bodie Turner) and third (Kris Schaff) in men’s compound, while Italy’s Elisa RONER took the women’s compound title with the Superdrive 23.
Year 101
Vegas also saw the conclusion of Easton’s 100-year anniversary commemoration, with the Foundation exhibition of our company history seeing thousands of visitors, the Easton Tesla Roadster- star of the show for the finals- getting thousands of fingerprints from excited archers, and a spectacular Saturday night blowout for the thousands of spectators in the arena.
