Fourteen-year-old Casey Kaufhold converted her cadet world record and top-seeded qualifying round into the recurve women’s individual title at the GT Open in Luxembourg, the first stage of the 2019 Indoor Archery World Series.
Kaufhold levelled her final with second seed Gabriela Bayardo in the fifth set, before delivering a 10 in the tiebreak to beat her opponent’s nine and secure the victory.
“Coming into the competition, I knew that I had the skill to come here and do well. I just applied everything that I knew form-wise and mental-wise to the competition and it ended up with a good outcome,” said Casey.
“It feels really good. I am very happy and proud that I could win this for my country, my team and my family.”
Domagoj Buden won the compound men’s competition, also in a shoot-off.
He led Stephan Hansen by a point for most of the match but said, after recently changing to a back tension release aid, he found the pace of the alternate shooting in the final challenging.
“I didn’t have enough time to calm down. I didn’t have enough time to relax for the shot,” he explained. “I made a bad shot [in the last end] and just tried to make it to the shoot-off – and make a great shot in the shoot-off.”
Buden’s tiebreak arrow was an inside-out 10 and enough to beat Hansen, whose arrow was a 10 but clearly further from the middle.
The world’s number two-ranked recurve man, Steve Wijler, and Toja Ellison were the other two winners at the GT Open.
Ellison dispatched Viktoria Balzhanova, 145-143, in the compound women’s final.
Wijler shot three perfect sets in a 7-1 win over Tom Hall.
“I’m really happy to win because every one I win is just another thing off my bucket list,” said Steve.
GT Open 2018 podiums
Recurve men
Recurve women
Compound men
Compound women
The top 16 finishers in each competition category at the GT Open receive points towards the Indoor Archery World Series elite ranking.
All participants are listed in the circuit’s open ranking.
The Indoor Archery World Series continues in just one week’s time at the Macau Indoor Archery Open in China.
The GT Open is the first stage of the 2019 Indoor Archery World Series.
