James Lutz: First win at first World Cup with 150-point gold medal match

James Lutz shot a perfect 150-point match to beat USA teammate and defending Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion Kris Schaff by a point in the final of the third stage of the circuit in Antalya. 

“I feel good still a little bit jittery. It was fun it was hot out there, a lot hotter out there than the practice field that’s for sure,” said Lutz, who made his international debut at the event.

“It’s always hard beating a teammate, I mean he shot a 149. I knew he wasn’t going to give me any room so I just had to hit every shot. But he shot very well and I am proud of him, too.”

Incredibly, James’s 150 wasn’t the first perfect match on compound Saturday in Antalya.

Mike Schloesser, who came close to cleaning his final at the first stage of the season in Medellin, beat Daniel Munoz to bronze with 150 points, too.

His is the second perfect match to be fully televised and shot alternately. The first was shot by Reo Wilde at the Shanghai stage of the international circuit in 2011.

“I’ve had some trouble with my last arrows – and that one was better so I’m really happy to have 15 good shots,” said Mike.

We’ve been waiting for a long time to see a clean match shot in a final arena again. Now we’ve had two in one day.

Lutz joins Schloesser and Braden Gellenthien as stage winners in 2019 and qualifiers for the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final in Moscow.

However, this situation could still get interesting as each country can have a maximum of two athletes at the season-ending event – and both Lutz and Gellenthien are from the USA.

If a third compound man from the country was to win stage four in Berlin, then that person would also have to overtake Lutz or Gellenthien in the Hyundai Archery World Cup Rankings. In that case, the lowest-ranked of the stage winners would be excluded.

Currently, defending Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion and Antalya silver medallist Kris Schaff sits in third with 33 points, two places higher and eight points more than Lutz.

Munoz, who came fourth here in Turkey, is also fourth in the rankings on 26 points.

The third stage of the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup takes place on 20-26 May in Antalya, Turkey.