Schloesser starts post-pandemic season with top qualification in Porec

Mike Schloesser shot 703 points to lead compound men’s qualification at the European Grand Prix in Porec, a return to the customary field-leading spot for the reigning Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion at his first major outdoor event in 18 months.

“It was definitely challenging because of the wind but I made it more difficult than it really was,” said the Dutch world number two.

“It was tense because this was the first competition in a long while and that’s tough. The atmosphere was good, though. I was just hoping I would shoot better than I did today.”

Slovakian archer Jozef Bosansky was the only other compound archer to break 700 points for the 72-arrow 50-metre ranking round with 701. That’s either an indication of just how difficult the conditions were or just that it’ll take some time for athletes to get back in competition shape after last year’s international competition hiatus.

Yesim Bostan of Turkey led the compound women with 688 points.

Russia’s Svetlana Gomboeva was the top-scoring recurve woman on 661. Eleven athletes in the category had 650-plus.

Twenty-one-year-old Alessandro Paoli was in another league during recurve men’s qualification. The Italian archer shot 685, which was 10 points more than second-ranked Mete Gazoz, the Turkish world number five.

Some 180 archers from 23 countries are competing at this world ranking event.

Competition in Porec continues with eliminations on Thursday and Friday, followed by finals on Saturday, which are being streamed live on World Archery’s Youtube channel.