Brady Ellison did not need a perfect last arrow to win in Puebla, but he wanted one. The American recurve veteran beat Chih-Chun Tang of Chinese Taipei 6-4 in the men's individual final at the Hyundai Archery World Cup opener, locking in his 15th career World Cup Final appearance and leading a five-medal U.S. haul that finished second only to China on the medal table.
"I needed 10 to win. It fired, and I knew it was a 10 in my head and it just missed, so I was like 'come on'," Ellison said after the final.
The miss did not matter - Ellison closed the match the next arrow up - but the comment captured how tight the final had been. Tang had pushed the contest to a fourth set and made the American work for every set point, with both archers showing the kind of mid-round adjustments that have become standard at the front of the men's recurve field.
"Sometimes the matches go like that," Ellison said. "You like to win them on your last arrow but coming away with the win, making the (World Cup) Final with the first stage of the year, I'm super excited."
The individual gold sat inside a wider U.S. picture that exceeded most pre-tournament forecasts. The men's recurve team of Ellison, Christian Stoddard and Jack Williams beat Turkey in a shoot-off to claim a second gold; the recurve mixed pair of Ellison and Casey Kaufhold lost the final to China and took silver; the compound women's team of Olivia Dean, Paige Pearce and Alexis Ruiz lost a 233-232 thriller to India for silver; and Ruiz and Stephan Hansen claimed bronze for the United States in the compound mixed team, beating India 155-154.
Stoddard finished sixth in the men's recurve individual draw, an under-the-radar performance that nonetheless got him deep into bracket play and added to the U.S. tally on Friday's elimination day. Williams, the third member of the team gold trio, also produced a clean middle-round series across the team event.
The medal count made the United States the second-most successful nation of the week behind China - a reflection of the depth of Beijing's recurve and compound rosters, but also a confirmation that the U.S. recurve program is still operating in the medal mix at the top of the men's individual ladder.
For Ellison personally, the Final qualification banks an early-season ticket. World Cup Final fields are filled by the four Hyundai stage winners across the season plus a small number of additional spots from the season-long ranking; Ellison's Puebla gold guarantees him entry without needing to lean on later results. That gives him scheduling flexibility ahead of the Shanghai stage in May and the World Championships block.
It also feeds into the longer 2028 conversation. The Los Angeles Olympic cycle is now firmly inside the planning window for U.S. selectors, and the Puebla performance reinforced Ellison's status as the program's anchor recurve archer at age 37, alongside the rising women's individual contender Casey Kaufhold.
For now, though, the immediate target is straightforward: keep the form, keep the results, and turn Puebla into a season rather than a moment.
