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Anthony Barbier finally wins GT Open after five attempts

17 novembre 2024

Strassen, Luxembourg

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Anthony Barbier raising his arms in the air.

Anthony Barbier finally won the GT Open on his fifth attempt as he defeated Alen Remar to win his first ever international recurve men medal.

Barbier, who was one of 72 French entries across all senior compound and recurve events in Strassen, had come ninth twice (2018 and 2019), fourth (2022) and 17th (2023) in his previous efforts but put in a career best string of results at this year’s second stage of the Indoor World Series to end his hunt for a podium finish.

It culminated in him beating second qualifying seed Remar in the gold medal match on Sunday afternoon, defeating him 6-4 in the recurve set point scoring system.

“I’m obviously really happy,” said 24 year old Barbier. “It feels a little bit unreal. It’s a lot of work that’s paying right now.”

“I had quite a good qualification. I struggled a little bit with my mental game. I was not really satisfied with my first two matches but then this morning, things went better and I’m quite happy with how I shot.”

As the score suggested, it was a tight encounter. The tone of the match was set after the first two ends as Barbier dropped an opening 30 to take the first set, Remar responding with his own in the second to tie the scores at 2-2.

Both shot 29 in the next two sets meaning the match was left on a knife edge with it being 4-4 heading into the fifth and final end, but it was 25 year old Remar who blinked first, dropping two nines for the first time in the match to hit 28, Barbier hitting his last two arrows into the 10 ring to capitalise and take the gold.

“A lot of mental work,” Barbier responded when asked about this massive improvement in results. “Having some keys to victory, to be more relaxed and to fight a little bit of the stress.”

“I have some key words to keep in mind. It allows me to shoot quite ok.”

Although he lost, Croatian Remar should be leaving Luxembourg with his head held high having defeated Paris 2024 mixed team silver medallist Florian Unruh (6-5) and Tokyo 2020 individual silver medallist Mauro Nespoli (6-5) enroute to Sunday’s final as well as shooting an impressive tally of 587 from 60 arrows in the qualifying round.

The silver medal is also his best return as an individual athlete, bettering the bronze he got in the Sud de France - Nimes Archery Tournament two years ago and Croatia’s men’s team bronze at the European Indoor Championships earlier this year.

Having seen their Olympic clean sweep at Paris 2024, Korea’s indoor prowess was also shown at the Guillaume Tell Archery Club with three of their four recurve women entries making it into the quarterfinals.

That was before an all Korean gold medal match, a familiar sight to say the least.

Lim Duna's candle has burnt brightly since her 2023 international debut, and it remained very much lit as she beat teammate and twin sister Lim Hana 6-2 to get the top podium finish.

The 23 year old has now won every international competition she has entered with her GT Open triumph adding to two Vegas Shoot titles (2023 and 2024) and the 2023 Indoor World Series Finals gold.

In the compound events, Mike Schloesser lived up to his ‘Mister Perfect’ tag as he shot 150 in the men’s final but so did Abhishek Verma who was the only archer to drop a perfect 600 in the qualifications.

Schloesser however shot a 10 closer to the X (centre of target) than his Indian counterpart to wrap up the gold, two weeks after winning the opening Indoor World Series stage in Lausanne.

“The level in general was really high here,” said the 2024 World Field champion. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 590 not make the top 32 here.”

“It was very hard, I fought for every match and every win.”

The reigning Asian Games champion Jyothi Surekha Vennam defeated Belgium’s Sarah Prieels in the compound women gold medal match 147-145, the world number 4's first ever GT Open medal let alone gold.

The third stage of archery’s premier indoor circuit continues next month at the Taipei Archery Open in Taoyuan City, from 6-8 December.