Crispin Duenas named champion of recurve Lockdown Knockout
Canadian Olympian Crispin Duenas beat Mexico’s Aida Roman, 7-1, to become champion of the Lockdown Knockout on Sunday 21 June, the recurve version of the international remote tournament featuring eight of the world’s top archers.
“I’m super happy. It’s been a long time since I’ve done competition and felt this kind of pressure,” said Crispin. “I was able to pull it back in the fourth set and shoot a comfortable 30. I’m happy. Congratulations to Aida for really great shooting in this final.”
The first set of the match was a thriller.
Duenas, the reigning Pan American Games Champion shot three 10s. Aida opened with two consecutive nines – and opted to go for the white dot, the 15mm spot in the red worth 12 points.
She delivered an excellent arrow, hitting the mark and bringing her total to 30, too.
“I was very happy to shoot it in my first try, live and in competition as during practice it was very difficult to do it. The circle is very small so I was very happy to shoot it in my first attempt,” said Aida.
The silver medallist at the London 2012 Olympic Games fell behind in the second, 30-29, and then had another attempt at the 12 in the third.
Arriving in the fourth set, with a 5-1 lead, Canada’s three-time Olympian delivered his fourth perfect 30-point set of the match, leaving Aida with nothing but another attempt at the 12 to extend the contest. She landed left – and wide of the mark.
Crispin took the match, the event and the 1000 CHF top prize.
“I was really happy to be named to the four men selected in the world to do this, so once I learned that I was going to be doing this, a little bit more focus went back into 18 metres and I’m very happy with how I shot,” said Crispin.
“I’m very impressed with how Aida shot, her last match against Gaby [Bayardo] was 29, 30, 29 and that’s amazing shooting with normal scoring and to be able to shoot a 12 in our match was just… no words… it’s amazing.”
Duenas was the top qualifier in the event, shooting 595 out of a possible 600 for the 60-arrow 18-metre ranking round. Through three matches, he shot 13 sets and 39 arrows – and only one arrow out of the 10-ring.
He was a deserved winner.
The Lockdown Knockout was a remote international tournament run in May and June 2020 during restrictions imposed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Eight compound archers competed in May, when Sara Lopez came out on top, followed by eight recurve archers in June. Archers competed from their own homes and ranges. The winners received 1000 CHF and runners-up 500 CHF in prize money.
