Schloesser’s 599 tops Marrakesh ranking round

Mike Schloesser remains the only person to have shot a perfect 60-arrow ranking round over 18 metres. He shot 600 – out of a possible 600 points – at the Nimes stages of the Indoor Archery World Cup in 2015.

It’s not been matched since. But he came close again in Marrrakesh.

Mike kept his arrows within the 10 until the 15th end (of 20), when he put his third shot, in the bottom face, low in the nine. The perfect score out of reach, Mister Perfect cleaned the last 15 arrows of qualification for a 599 total and the top seed in the compound men’s competition at the first stage of the 2016/17 Indoor Archery World Cup.

“After the 600, every qualification I was really nervous. Not any more. I’m not thinking about it and just trying my best,” said Schloesser.

“To be honest, with the nine I shot I was thinking about it. That’s the reason why I probably shot the nine. It’s hard to concentrate for 60 arrows in a row. It’s easy to not have focus or pay attention to the shot. That’s normally when the mistakes happen.”

Mike explained that he uses his nerves to try and maintain concentration throughout the round.

“In the beginning you just try to remain calm. When you’ve settled in, your nerves drop down. I try to keep my nerves as level as possible. Not drop off immediately, so it’s not gone in one piece. Slowly get rid of them,” he said.

Stephan Hansen seeded second on 596, three points behind.

Four compound men tied on 594, the third-highest score: Peter Elzinga, David Houser, Braden Gellenthien and Viktor Orosz.

Top-ranked recurve woman Aida Roman – 584 – and second-place finisher Bryony Pitman – 581 – both spoke about their nerves, too. Roman admitted she feels them at the start of every event, while Pitman, who finished one point down on her competition personal best, said she was watching the scoreboard during competition.

Gabriela Bayardo, who made her Olympic debut in Rio as part of the Mexican women’s team with Roman and Alejandra Valencia, seeded third on 576 points.

The first stage of the 2016/17 Indoor Archery World Cup runs 26/27 November 2016 in Marrakesh, Morocco.

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