(Photo World Archery)
They may not have made it to Sunday’s recurve finals, but the Vietnam men’s team still became the story of the day as they secured bronze at the second stage of the Archery World Cup circuit in Shanghai.
Le Quoc Phong, Nguyen Hoang Phi Vu and Nguyen Duy defeated USA’s Brady Ellison, Trenton Cowles and Jack Williams 5-3 in the bronze medal match to claim Vietnam’s maiden World Cup podium in recurve men’s team.
Wild celebrations erupted after Hoang’s winning 10 confirmed the historic result.
The achievement was even more remarkable considering none of Vietnam’s archers in Shanghai are ranked inside the world’s top 50, with Duy and Quoc Phong never having stepped onto an international podium before.
“Honestly, this feels absolutely wonderful and holds immense significance for both me and the entire team,” said first shooter Quoc Phong, the only Vietnamese representative at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. “It marks the first time we have ever won a world-level medal. Right now, I feel incredibly happy, and my emotions are truly indescribable.”
“Our primary objective remains the Asian Games; therefore, we intend to use the medal we won at this tournament as both motivation and a springboard to conquer even greater challenges.”
The greatest challenge for Quoc Phong and his teammates at Aichi-Nagoya, and for the rest of the season, will undoubtedly be Korea.
Vietnam experienced the level required to overcome the Paris-winning trio of Kim Woojin, Lee Woo Seok and Kim Je Deok, as Korea did not shoot below 55 in any of their semifinal sets – 57, 57 and 58 – in a 5-1 victory.
Korea averaged 9.56 as a team in that match, with Woojin putting all six arrows into the 10-ring.
That is now close to the minimum level required on most days to challenge the seemingly inevitable Koreans, and increasing their own averages will certainly be on Vietnam’s agenda in the build-up to Japan.
Quoc Phong was eliminated earlier in the hot morning session at the Yuanshen Sports Centre – where temperatures climbed above 30 degrees Celsius – but his 6-4 loss to Kazakhstan’s Ilfat Abdullin became, in his eyes, a blessing in disguise, helping him identify what needed improving for the team event.
“After losing my individual match, I felt I needed to figure out what adjustments to make – especially for the team event,” he said. “I really tried to focus on the clock and my form to improve, so that I could better support my teammates in the team matches.”
India and Japan remain the frontrunners to challenge Korea later this season, but Vietnam – now the second-highest-finishing Asian recurve men’s team in Shanghai – has certainly established itself as one to watch ahead of Japan.
That can wait for later, though, as for now the entire Vietnamese contingent will celebrate Thursday’s history-making feat.
India also impressed on Thursday, upsetting Olympic and world championship gold medallist Korea 5-1 in recurve women’s team. Korea later recovered to claim bronze.
James Lutz and Alexis Ruiz confirm their second finals team appearance
James Lutz and Alexis Ruiz continued their hot streaks as the pair booked themselves into the compound mixed team gold medal match.
The Americans pipped the Jaatma siblings – Lisell and Robin – of Estonia to the stage 158-157 in the Yuanshen Sports Centre, which had significantly cooled down in the afternoon from the morning session, with the wind returning to its unpredictable ways as well.
Ruiz is having a sterling week in particular, having secured her first-ever top-seed qualification spot at a World Cup on Tuesday’s 72-arrow round, and Lutz — fresh off his record-breaking 719 at the 2026 Easton Foundations Gator Cup a couple weeks ago — has now reached two finals on his Shanghai debut [compound men team and mixed] as has his teammate [compound women team and mixed].
“Me and Alexis have been number one in the States for like five years and we’ve never shot together,” said Lutz, who could still make it three out of three finals should he come through tomorrow’s individual eliminations. “It’s been really pleasant to shoot in here. I’ve never shot in China, and I knew the wind in the stadium here could be a little tricky.”
“It was just basically learning that. I’m feeling good going into the matches.”
In a contest that had only one point in it, the semifinal was one of fine margins, with the Jaatmas – guided by their mother and head coach Maarika – but luckily for USA, they had their very best compound exports on the shooting line.
Lutz and Ruiz have been the top archers in their respective genders out of USA for the last five years yet bemusedly, have never won an international medal together as a duo.
The only time Tlaxcala 2024 World Cup champion Lutz has in fact medalled in mixed team was at Medellin 2022 [silver] with Linda Ochoa-Anderson and then alongside Paige Pearce at the Santiago 2022 Pan American Championships [bronze].
Ruiz, on the other hand, has World Championship [Berlin 2023] and Pan American [2024] mixed team golds to her name, as well as the 2019 World Cup Final top podium in the event back when the discipline was competed at the circuit finale.
This year’s Vegas Shoot runner-up was the star once again, not dropping a single arrow into the nine and shooting just three 10s across all three matches.
Lutz was quick to acknowledge it.
“You know, I knew coming into it that she’s going to have my back and I’m going to have hers, and she definitely had my back today, so it was good,” added Lutz, who is shooting for the first time in Shanghai despite competing on the World Cup circuit for the past seven years. “I just didn’t really know what to expect with the wind. I would say easier [than expected]. I find myself overthinking the wind when I don’t need to.”
“Really, I think all week if I just put the pin in the middle every time it’s going to hit there. When I try aiming for the wind, that’s when I’ve been missing.”
Both archers will be intertwined in a much larger compound head-to-head on compound Saturday against Türkiye.
Hazal Burun and Emircan Haney will also feature in the men’s and women’s team finals, meaning the morning’s finals will see a USA versus Türkiye triple-header for gold.
