The Vegas Shoot is the largest and most prestigious indoor archery tournament in the world. The 2024 event brought together over 4,500 archers from around the globe ranging from beginner archers to Olympic champions. Archers from more than 50 counties participated, both seniors and youth — compound, recurve and barebow. The three-day competition featured the traditional 3-spot 20-yard Vegas Round that made this tournament famous.
Nicholas D’Amour, Mike Gerard, Eloi George and Goddess George of Team Virgin Islands were among the more than 4,500 archers in Las Vegas. D’Amour
shot in the Men’s Championship Division and Gerard, Eloi George and Goddess George shot in the Recurve Flights Division.
In the Indoor World Series (IWS), D’Amour was seeded 15th with 110 points. He garnered points from his 17th place at the Nimes Indoor Championship and his 6th place qualification in Las Vegas. The top 16 seeds qualified for the final eliminations. In the first round of the finals of the IWS, D’Amour faced Marcus Dalmeida of Brazil. Dalmeida is presently ranked 1st in the world. D’Amour shot nearly perfect with a 148. After only dropping two points, it wasn’t enough to win, losing to Dalmeida 7-3, who shot a perfect 150. D’Amour finished 9th overall in the IWS.
In addition to capturing 9th place in the World Archery Indoor World Series Final, D’Amour finished in 12th place in the National Field Archery Association Foundation – The Vegas Shoot 2024. In the Recurve Championship Division, D’Amour shot 288, 295 and 294 over three days, for a total of 877. He discovered an unfortunate equipment problem on the first day, resulting in an uncharacteristic lower score. D’Amour remains ranked number 10th in the world.
Mike Gerard of the Virgin Islands also had a great weekend. Over three days, he shot 274, 272 and 271, for a total of 817. Gerard finished 7th in his flight. Eloi George and Goddess George also shot in the Recurve Flights. Eloi shot 143, 191 and 169 over three days and Goddess shot 105, 69 and 115.
After a great indoor season, Team Virgin Islands will now focus on the outdoor season at 70 meters and qualification for the Olympics. As for D’Amour, his next stop will be an intense training camp in Madrid, Spain. He will be training with Spain’s Olympic team. After the training camp, D’Amour will travel to Marica, Brazil, for the South American Championships on March 25-31, 2024, and then to Medellin, Colombia, for the Pan American Championships and Olympic Qualifier April 7-14, 2024.
In April, the World Cup series starts with competitions in Shanghai, China, April 23-28; Yecheon, Korea, May 21-26; and Antalya, Turkey, June 18-23 for the three stages of the World Cup Series. The World Cup Stage 3 in Antalya, Turkey, will also host the final Olympic Qualifier. The team will also head to Porec, Croatia, for the European Grand Prix, June 3-8. All these events are critical world-ranking events leading up to the 2024 Paris Olympics. Team Virgin Islands is off to a great start in its Olympic bid.
