Back-to-back top seeds for Mike Schloesser after 716 in Switzerland

Reigning Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion Mike Schloesser finished top of compound men’s qualifying for the second consecutive stage of the international circuit after shooting 716 in Lausanne.

He was one point down on his round from the opener in Guatemala City one month ago, when he eventually finished runner-up.

“It was good shooting. Yesterday, I was a bit struggling because I had cold hands and I couldn’t get my feeling. Today, I started off strong and I kept it like that, so I’m really happy about it,” he said.

Conditions during practice were pretty terrible.

Unexpectedly, the rain held off. Yet although it was cold, the air was generally still during Tuesday afternoon’s qualification session.

“Yesterday, I didn’t shoot too much. What would it prove? I could shoot more, maybe double the amount of arrows that I did but, like, yesterday the conditions were so horrible,” said the world number two.

“It was just like, my bow is shooting good and that’s the most important thing and tomorrow, we’ll see. It’s another day, you know?”

Stephan Hansen landed the second seed with 713, beating stage one winner Braden Gellenthien on X-count alone, 32 to 31. The duo was watching each other’s last arrows.

Guatemala finalist Jozef Bosansky was fourth, and James Mason came fifth. Both shot 710.

A total of 25 compound men broke 700 for the 72-arrow, 50-metre round in Lausanne.

Six of those tied on the bubble for the top-eight bye at 709 points. Florian Grafmans, Nicolas Girard and Yildiz Yakup won the shoot-off to skip Wednesday morning’s early phase. Evren Cagiran, Adrien Gontier and Martin Damsbo will have to shoot the extra match.

Two-time Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion Sergio Pagni qualified 23rd – but probably had the most entertaining last end.

He stepped off the line and after some discussion in Italian, shot one extra arrow. The experienced international wasn’t sure whether he’d shot his six arrows, and he  didn’t want to risk being short.

“When you’re confident you can hit a 10 but are not confident you have shot five,” he joked at the target afterward.

It turned out he’d shot seven arrows. According to the rule, the highest value was removed. Fortunately, his extra shot was a 10. It was a risk, but a well-calculated risk from the Italian pro.

Competition continues Wednesday for the compound men in Lausanne.

Top 8 seeds: Compound men

1. Mike Schloesser, Netherlands – 716
2. Stephan Hansen, Denmark – 713 (32 Xs)
3. Braden Gellenthien, USA – 713 (31 Xs)
4. Jozef Bosansky, Slovakia – 710 (33 Xs)
5. James Mason, Great Britain – 710 (29 Xs)
6. Florian Grafmans, Germany – 709 (62 10s)
7. Nicolas Girard, France – 709 (61 10s, 30 Xs, coin toss)
8. Yakup Yildiz, Turkey – 709 (61 10s, 30 Xs, coin toss)