The 27th edition of the Nîmes Archery Tournament — held at the Parc des Expositions and Le Parnasse Hall from 19–21 January 2024 — delivered everything that makes this event the most beloved leg of the Indoor Archery World Series calendar. More than 1,120 archers from 50 countries filled the enormous Occitanie venue, with the 500-point IWS stage and the Under-21 Youth Finals both taking place across the weekend. The atmosphere — described by competitors year after year as the closest thing archery has to a home crowd in a packed football stadium — proved electric, and the performances on the day more than matched the occasion.
With the Indoor Archery World Series Finals in Las Vegas just two weeks away, every placement on Sunday carried outsized importance. Only the top 16 in each category would earn a Finals invitation, and for many athletes on the bubble, Nîmes was their final chance to secure one of those coveted spots. It was, by all accounts, one of the finest weekends of indoor archery in recent memory.
Competition Format
- Distance: 18 metres, indoors, shooting at a 40 cm three-spot target face.
- Qualification: 60 arrows establishing seedings for the head-to-head elimination bracket.
- Recurve Matches: Decided by the set system — best of five sets, three arrows per set, two set points for a win and one each for a tie.
- Compound Matches: Decided on cumulative score — five ends of three arrows, maximum 150 points.
- Points value: As the only 500-point event before Las Vegas on the 2024 calendar, Nîmes offered the highest elite ranking points of any non-Finals stage.
- Youth Finals: The Indoor Archery World Series Under-21 Youth Finals were also held in Nîmes on Sunday morning, with the top 16 under-21 archers in each category competing for scholarships.
Recurve Events — Sunday, January 21
Men's Recurve Individual
Defending Indoor World Series champion Steve Wijler (Netherlands) entered Nîmes on the back of victories at Lausanne and Strassen, making him the standout favourite in the recurve men's bracket. Wijler lived up to his billing, navigating the eliminations with clinical precision and abandoning only two points across his matchplay run. His most testing moment came in the semifinal, where he narrowly edged world number one Marcus D'Almeida (Brazil) — the Brazilian, who had been in fearsome form throughout qualification, served up a stunning four-set sequence before a nine in the final set ended his challenge 6-4.
- 🥇 Gold: Steve Wijler (Netherlands) — The defending Indoor World Series champion showed his class throughout the weekend, dropping just two points in matchplay and defeating D'Almeida in the semis before claiming yet another top-tier IWS result. Wijler's consistency in the Nîmes arena over multiple seasons has made him the de facto king of the indoor circuit.
- 🥈 Silver: Patrick Huston (Great Britain) — The experienced British international reached his best result of the 2024 indoor season, progressing through the bracket to claim silver and confirming his standing as one of Europe's most reliable recurve performers indoors.
- 🥉 Bronze: Marcus D'Almeida (Brazil) — The world number one, who topped qualification convincingly, recovered from his semifinal defeat to Wijler to claim the bronze medal, maintaining his excellent form heading into Las Vegas.
Women's Recurve Individual
The women's recurve event produced one of the most dramatic finals of the 2024 indoor season. Spanish lefthander Elia Canales — making a strong push for a Finals spot in what was a congested elite standings race — navigated a shoot-off in the quarterfinals to reach Sunday's showpiece, where she faced Germany's Charline Schwarz. With both women matching each other's precision right to the final end, a tiebreak arrow decided the title, and Canales — grinning as her arrow left the bow — drilled an inside-out 10 to seal her maiden major Indoor World Series victory.
- 🥇 Gold: Elia Canales (Spain) — The young Spaniard with Olympic ambitions capped an outstanding weekend in Nîmes with her first senior gold on the indoor circuit, claiming the title via a shoot-off against Schwarz after the two had matched set for set through the final. "It was really close. Charline shot amazing," Canales said afterwards. "I did my best and it went well." It was her second Nîmes medal after a youth bronze in 2018.
- 🥈 Silver: Charline Schwarz (Germany) — The German Olympic team medallist from Tokyo 2020 was superb throughout the eliminations, and her silver at Nîmes 2024 underlined Germany's continued strength in women's recurve.
- 🥉 Bronze: Michelle Kroppen (Germany) — A second German medallist on the podium in the women's recurve, Kroppen claimed bronze ahead of the Finals in Las Vegas, where she would go on to make history just a fortnight later.
Notably, Victoria Sebastian (France), the second seed in qualification, was eliminated in the bronze medal match by Kroppen, while reigning world number two Casey Kaufhold (USA) had a difficult weekend, failing to reach the final stages despite her high seeding.
Compound Events — Sunday, January 21
Men's Compound Individual — A Historic Performance
The compound men's event provided the performance of the entire indoor season. World number one Mike Schloesser (Netherlands) — who had already captured the first two stages of the 2024 Indoor World Series at Lausanne and Strassen — came into Nîmes after a relatively ordinary qualification round of 597, seeded third. What followed in matchplay was something that had never been done before at an international indoor event: five consecutive perfect scores of 150, making Schloesser the first athlete in the history of the sport to achieve that feat. His only moment of genuine danger came against top seed Mathias Fullerton (Denmark) in the quarterfinals, where a shoot-off was required after both men shot 150. Schloesser's winning arrow was fractionally closer to centre.
In the final, Schloesser met James Lutz (USA), who had himself had an excellent week reaching his second consecutive IWS final of the season. Lutz shot a near-perfect 148 but was simply outgunned on the day. The final scoreline of 150–148 told the story: Schloesser had been immaculate throughout and delivered one of the most commanding compound performances ever seen at this level.
- 🥇 Gold: Mike Schloesser (Netherlands) — His second Indoor World Series gold of the 2024 season was the icing on the cake of a truly historic performance. "Very stoked," the Dutchman said, when asked for his feelings. "I'm really proud of myself. I've worked hard for this. This is the biggest event in Europe, and winning it means a lot to me." Schloesser also became the first person to shoot a perfect 600-point qualifying round indoors — also at Nîmes, back in 2017 — and this win added another chapter to his extraordinary legacy in the city.
- 🥈 Silver: James Lutz (USA) — The experienced American, who had been in excellent form all season, reached his second IWS final of the 2024 indoor circuit and was edged by Schloesser's remarkable 150, shooting 148 in the gold medal match.
- 🥉 Bronze: Mathias Fullerton (Denmark) — Despite being the top seed and shooting a perfect 150 in the quarterfinal only to lose a shoot-off, Fullerton regrouped to claim the bronze medal with a dominant win, underlining his status as one of the world's best compound archers.
Women's Compound Individual
The compound women's event produced a major upset. Colombian legend Andrea Becerra — widely expected to contend for gold — was undone by an inconsistent back-end performance in the final, dropping four points over the final two ends to hand Spanish archer Alejandra Usquiano a maiden 18-metre major victory. It was a significant scalp: Usquiano had entered the weekend without an Indoor World Series title to her name, and defeating the reigning world number one on the Nîmes stage was a career-defining moment.
- 🥇 Gold: Alejandra Usquiano (Colombia) — A stunning maiden Indoor World Series gold for the Colombian compounder, who capitalised on Becerra's late wobble to claim the Nîmes title and announce herself as a genuine force in compound women's archery.
- 🥈 Silver: Andrea Becerra (Mexico) — The world number one was pipped at the post, dropping four points across the final two ends to lose a match she had appeared likely to win. It was a rare slip from one of compound archery's most consistent performers.
- 🥉 Bronze: Roy Dror (Israel) — A career-first podium at an Indoor World Series event for the Israeli archer, who had an outstanding weekend throughout the elimination rounds, claiming the Nîmes bronze to cap what was the result of her indoor season.
Under-21 Youth Finals — Sunday, January 21 (Morning)
The Youth Finals in Nîmes provided one of the most dominant performances of the entire weekend. Netherlands' Quinty Roeffen, who had already swept the early European legs in Lausanne and Strassen, completed a perfect three-from-three title run with a 6-0 shutout of Spain's Irati Unamunzaga Altuna in the Under-21 women's recurve final — shooting three consecutive perfect sets of 30. Having won every Under-21 European event on the 2024 Indoor World Series calendar, Roeffen arrived in Nîmes as the heavy favourite, and she delivered exactly as expected.
Key Takeaways
- Mike Schloesser's five consecutive 150s — never done before at an international indoor event — stands as the single most remarkable compound feat of the 2024 indoor season and perhaps the finest individual matchplay performance in the history of the Indoor World Series.
- Elia Canales' shoot-off gold was an emotional win for Spain, and her grinning pre-release 10 will live long in the memory of those who watched it unfold in Le Parnasse Hall.
- Alejandra Usquiano upset world number one Becerra in the compound women's event — a major result that underlined the depth of Colombian compound archery.
- Steve Wijler continued his Indoor World Series dominance, dropping just two points in matchplay en route to yet another Nîmes result, keeping him on track to defend his season title in Las Vegas.
- Quinty Roeffen's perfect sweep of all three European legs of the Under-21 circuit — three from three, with three consecutive 30s in the Youth Final — was a remarkable piece of consistency from one of archery's most exciting young talents.
- With the Indoor Archery World Series Finals (Las Vegas, February 2–4) just a fortnight away, all four category standings were now set. The 16 athletes in each division who had secured their Finals invitations would converge on the Southpoint Hotel and Casino for the season's decisive weekend.