Anders Faugstad shoots perfect 150-point match to win junior world championship

Norway’s Anders Faugstad scored a perfect 150 points in the compound junior men’s final at the 2019 World Archery Youth Championships in Madrid to win his first world title just months after he came second at the 2019 Hyundai World Archery Championships in ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.

“It feels pretty great,” he said. “After the silver medal at the world senior championships, this was my goal. I really felt like I could do it, take gold at the youth, and after taking it, a 1000 kilos fell off my shoulders.”

“I can’t wait to get home and practice for the next tournaments.”

The outcome of the final never looked in doubt. Faugstad’s concentration, his single-mindedness came from focusing on beating the world record.

“I tried to shoot a world record, but it’s 11Xs. I don’t think I had enough Xs to take it,” he said. Faugstad shot 4Xs.

“When I shot all 10s, my main focus was kind of shooting a world record, not thinking about the gold and it kind of helped me relieved the tension.”

Anders is the fourth compound man this season to shoot a televised perfect match. Mike Schloesser and James Lutz did so at the Antalya stage of the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup. Kim Jongho added his at the worlds.

“I have to say that this gold feels better since I shot a perfect score. The [senior] silver felt pretty good as well, but this one is special,” he said. Today is also Anders’ father’s birthday.

“I hope he really likes it. I can’t give him any bigger present than this, so we are going to enjoy dinner afterwards.”

Austin Taylor of Canada was the silver medallist. He scored 141 points for his 15 arrows and didn’t look comfortable in the arena next to the Royal Palace of Madrid – until he closed with an end of 30.

Taylor had nothing but compliments for Faugstad: “A 150, that’s incredible. Coming here, everybody was shooting so good that to get second place, I’m thrilled.”

The compound junior bronze medal match between Cooper French of the USA and Rodrigo Olvera of Mexico came down to a one-arrow shoot-off. It was a high-level match that saw the archers finish tied at 147 points apiece.

Cooper shot first in the tiebreak and landed a nine. Olvera sealed victory with a perfect 10 and collected bronze.

The 2019 World Archery Youth Championships takes place on 19-25 August in Madrid, Spain.