By Tom Degun at Lord's Cricket Ground in London

Lords Cricket_Ground_test_event_October_3_2011October 3 - American archery star Brady Ellison, the reigning World Cup champion in the men's recurve, has hailed Lord's Cricket Ground as an amazing London 2012 venue for his sport as the Olympic test event got underway here today.


More than 100 of the world's best archers are competing in the seven day competition which has been titled the London Archery Classic and is an officially recognised World Archery international tournament.

The first session of the competition was the men's ranking round and it got off to an explosive start as double Olympic champion Dong-Hyan Im of South Korea claimed a world record with a score of 693.

Ellision finished third in the 58-man field with an impressive score of 677 and the 22-year-old from Arizona admitted he the iconic venue is one of the best archery venues he has ever seen.

"This is the first cricket field I've ever been on or ever even seen apart from on television," said Brady, who also won gold at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro.

"It is absolutely amazing and I really like it.

"The field reminds me of a well-kept golf course and it's like walking on the greens.

"It's one of the nicest archery venues I've been on and I think this place will be great when we come back for the Olympics next year."

Britain's top performer in the men's competition was Laurence Godfrey who finished the men's ranking round in thirteenth with a score of 663 but he too admitted that he was hugely impressed by the setting.

"The wind was a bit tricky but it is such a beautiful venue," he said.

"The organisers have put on a bloody good show here and I'm sure they will do again next year.

"It is really nice."

The London Archery Classic is the first London 2012 Olympic Cluster 2 test event after the Cluster 1 test events were successful completed earlier this year and the event will see the first medals awarded tomorrow when the men's team tournament takes place.

The women's team tournament takes place the following day (August 5) and the men's individual gold medal matches take place on October 9 before the wome''s final rounds off the test event on October 10.

London 2012 will be using the event to test key aspects of its operations including running the competition on a single competition range during the elimination rounds - previous Olympic Games have used more than one range - and the new scoring system which will debut next year's Games.

During London 2012, crowds of 6,500 will be able to enjoy the competition of the competition with one field of play inside the stadium.

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