Now ranked No. 1 in the world, Brady Ellison has sights set on Olympic gold

By Chris Wells

Special to Independent Newsmedia

A former Mountain Ridge High School student is a world archery champion.

Brady Ellison, who once upon a time had to leave school at the Glendale campus to chase an opportunity to train at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California, and later pursue a GED (since there was no online school in his day) beat Khairul Anuar Mohamad with a perfect arrow in a tiebreak to collect his first outdoor world champion title at the 2019 Hyundai World Archery Championships in ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.

Brady Ellison captured the outdoor world champion title at the 2019 Hyundai World Archery Championships. [worldarchery.org/Special to Independent Newsmedia][/caption]“I’m so excited. I’m really trying to hold it in. I’m trying really hard not to cry,” Mr. Ellison said. “It feels good, it really does. That match was a lot tougher inside the ring than I thought it was going to be, condition-wise. I shot the one good arrow that I needed in the shoot-off and that’s what it came down to.”

He is now ranked No. 1 in the world.

The 30-year-old was the favorite in the final, having already won two stages of the Hyundai Archery World Cup this year. His opponent shot like he had nothing to lose.

The first three sets were tied. Mr. Ellison took the fourth. Mr. Mohamad won the fifth – and the recurve men’s world championship match went to a shoot-off.

“I knew I had to have it. And I knew if I hit it, I probably wasn’t going to go into a second shoot-off. If I could get that arrow and stick it good, that I was gonna win it,” Mr. Ellison said. “I was like, I know exactly where this is going to go. Just make a good shot, let it break low and hit X. As soon as it hit – I was like, that’s good enough.”

It was more than good. In arguably the biggest moment of his career to date, Mr. Ellison was great.

Mr. Mohamad  shot his arrow. It landed low and left in the eight. The world championship title was Mr. Ellison’s.

“This is probably the biggest one I’ve won. It’s bigger than my fields, it’s probably bigger than my bronze at the Games at this moment,” he said. “Now I need that Olympic gold medal. I need a gold. Yes, I want that Olympic gold and I’m going to get it next year.”

Mr. Ellison is the first recurve men’s world champion from the USA since 1985 when Rick McKinney won his third and last title.

Editor’s note: Chris Wells writes for worldarchery.org .