It was a rough morning to be a favourite in Mexico City, as all four top-ranked compound men lost their quarterfinal matches at the Archery World Cup Final.
First, Seb Peineau fell to French teammate Dominique Genet by a point, then the formidable Reo Wilde – seeded third at the event – lost to Turkey’s Demir Elmaagacli.
Turkey has never won an individual medal at the Archery World Cup Final.
The most shocking of the top-seed losses, though, came when Mike Schloesser took to the field against host-nation representative archer Mario Cardoso. Mister Perfect, Schloesser, was the number one ranked archer on the 2015 World Cup circuit.
He took a three-point lead after three arrows, then extended it to four after six – before things started to implode for the Flying Dutchman.
He shot an eight in the third end, then Cardoso posted a perfect 30 in the fourth. The Mexican athlete had drawn the match back to just a single-point deficit.
Cardoso finished strong: 10-10–9.
Schloesser started his last end with a 10, followed it up with a nine and found himself needing a 10 to win the match, or a nine to send it to a tie.
The top seed shot an eight.
“I couldn’t keep my nerves under control,” he said, after the match. “I was nervous throughout, really impressed by the crowd!”
By the time the match begun, the 4,500-seat arena was all but full.
“I guess it’s just a learning point, and I should really learn from that.”
Reo, who had high hopes for this tournament, 10 years on from his World Cup Final win in Mexico in 2006, said he was happy just to have made the finals.
“It’s a pretty big honour to be one of the eight people in the world that can do it,” he added.
The compound women’s competition wasn’t without upset, either – on a morning in which Mexico won every individual match it was represented in.
Second-seeded Natalia Avdeeva lost to Russian teammate Mariia Vinogradova after she shot a miss, and couldn’t recover. All three other high-ranked female athletes made it through the quarterfinals.
Natalia admitted she had no idea what had gone wrong.
“I was shooting good, I felt good and my technique was good. I was actually expecting it to be okay. I really can’t explain it,” she said.
