Kevin Mather sweeps para archery world records for 1440 Round

The USA’s Kevin Mather scored 1290 out of a possible 1440 points with distance scores of 307, 325, 321 and 345 points to set five new para archery world records in the recurve men’s open division at a tournament in Bothell, WA on 6-7 October 2018.

“I’m blown away,” said Mather. “It gives me a great sense of accomplishment and gives me confidence that I have the right coach, mindset and work ethic to continue setting big goals and achieving them.”

The 1440 Round consists of 36 arrows shot at 90, 70, 50 and 30 metres. It was previously used as the ranking round at international competition until the shift to the 72-arrow qualification developed at the Olympic Games.

Since starting to train with coach Mel Nichols in May 2018, Mather said he’d set a goal to hold all available world records.

“I had never shot 90 metres in competition before and only a few dozen arrows ever,” he said. “I had to start shooting tournaments that had the full 1440 Round. I searched the calendar and found a few that would work.”

Kevin broke the 90- and 70-metre 36-arrow para world records in his first attempt in July. It only took a few more tries to beat the remaining records, too.

There is now just one recurve men’s open para world record that Mather does not hold outdoors. Bato Tsydendorzhiev’s 655-point 72-arrow 70-metre qualification from the European Para Archery Championships in Nottwil in 2014 is still a world best.