Compound women’s record falls again as Sarah Prieels shoots 597/600 in Rome

Sarah Prieels has broken a compound women’s 60-arrow 18-metre ranking round world record that only stood for three weeks, shooting 597 out of a possible 600 points during qualification at the 2019 TRUBall/Axcel Roma Archery Trophy.

“I finished the first half with 120 points, so I thought it was possible but I was quite nervous,” said Prieels – who did not drop a point over her back 30 arrows.

“This is only the second 300 I’ve shot, so it felt really good.”

The previous record of 596 was set by Ella Gibson at the previous leg of the Indoor Archery World Series in Luxembourg on 23 November. (Janine Meissner matched it one day later at the same event.) 

Prieels is currently ranked world number 19. Shooting for the Performance Archery team during this Indoor Archery World Series, she finished third at the first event in Macau and ninth at the GT Open.

She scored 589 and 593 in qualification at those two tournaments. She found more points in Rome.

“I’ve changed something in my form recently,” explained Sarah. “Before I was always focusing on keeping my bow arm still but I’ve found that if I let my bow arm move naturally, I shoot a lot more 10s.”

Brazilian para archer Jane Karla Gogel, who set a new compound women’s open record in Luxembourg with 575, also increased that mark in Rome.

She scored 577 points to add two to her own record.

Prieels is on course to take top seed at the TRUBAll/Axcel Roma Archery Trophy but there is still one more session of qualification scheduled to take place.

The third event of the 2020 Indoor Archery World Series is the TRUBAll/Axcel Roma Archery Trophy on Saturday 14 to Sunday 15 December 2019.