Will Junior Orosz’ 148 Average Carry Him To a Third World Crown?

At the 2016 World Archery Indoor Championships in Ankara, he’ll go for his third.

Viktor Orosz’s first crown came two years ago, when he won the indoor junior world title at Nimes 2014. He followed that up one year later with an outdoor victory at Yankton – then, soon after, competed in his first senior World Archery Championships in Copenhagen.

It was an experience, said Viktor, that didn’t go as well as he would have hoped. He finished 33rd, but does admit it was good experience.

In Ankara, looking to get back to his winning ways, he followed up a second-seed qualifying performance with a five-point victory over Italy’s Manuel Festi in the compound junior men’s first round. That 148-143 match put him into a quarterfinal against Carson Sapp from the USA, who he beat by exactly the same score.

“I felt very good,” said Viktor. “I had a little bit of a strange start in the warm-ups, but I still shot an average of 148 during my matches.”

In the semis, Viktor shot against Turkey’s Furkan Dernekli. Clean until the fourth end, his last two arrows landed nine, taking him to another 148 – and a title match defence.

“I almost shot 150 but in the last end – and I don’t know why – I shot two nines to repeat the same score,” he explained. “It’s still a good score.”

The only one standing in between Viktor and that third world crown: top seed Christos Aerikos from Greece.

On his way to the final, Legnica 2011 youth outdoor silver medallist Christos disposed of Russia’s Boris Chizhov, Dane Sune Rasmussen and Anton Bulaev, also from Russia.