Archery competition comes to the South Point

The National Field Archery Association's World Archery Festival is coming to Las Vegas with its international competition and trade show.

The event is slated to run from Friday through Sunday at the Equestrian Center Arena at the South Point, 9777 Las Vegas Blvd. South.

Marihelen Rogers, the events manager for the organization, said the competition has been held all around Las Vegas, including Sam's Town, the Riviera and the Tropicana.

"We outgrew the Riviera and needed more space," Rogers said.

This will be the first year at the South Point's venue. Rogers expects more than 1,500 people to attend.

People can watch archers compete in different archery stylings including freestyle, freestyle limited, barebow, competitive bowhunter, bowhunter freestyle, freestyle limited, recurve and traditional.

The competition also includes the traditional three spot, 20-yard "Vegas Round."

The styles differ in the type of bows used and techniques implemented.

More than 300 archers from 32 countries, including Mexico, Ukraine, Italy, Canada and France, are expected to compete.

Champion archers are slated to square off against Olympians.

Brady Ellison, the No. 1 world-ranked archer, is expected to participate.

Ellison is focused on winning the first individual recurve men's gold. At the European Indoor Tournament, he set a U.S. record and tied the current world record by shooting a 597-600, a near-perfect score.

Competitors can win prizes from cash to a new car.

The total payout for the tournament is expected to be more than $165,000.

However, Rogers said, if an archer gets a perfect score, which is 900, he would win $1 million.

No archer has received a perfect score during past festivals, Rogers said.

"One person got close," Rogers said. "They scored perfect at the first two events but not the third."

Rogers said that before the association took over the competition, the event had been around for 27 years. It started as a low-key shoot-off between local competitors.

"When it started out, there were about 25 people involved," Rogers said. "Now it is an international competition."

Rogers said the association was asked to help run the growing tournament.

The association is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to archery. It hosts three national championship tournaments a year in conjunction with state-level championships.

It was founded in 1939 and consists of 50 state associations and more than 1,000 affiliated clubs.

In addition to the competition, people can attend a trade show and check out the latest in archery gear including bows, arrows, accessories, optics, videos, clothing, bowhunting and targets.

Admission is free and open to the public.

This event also serves as one of five competitions archers must compete in to receive the association's Shooter of the Year trophy.

The event is scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.

For more information, visit nfaa-archery.org.

Contact Henderson/Anthem View reporter Michael Lyle at mlyle@viewnews.com or 387-5201.