Nico Wiener crowned world champion in Yankton
Austria’s Nico Wiener beat Mike Schloesser of the Netherlands, 146-143, to take gold and his first outdoor world title at the 2021 Hyundai World Archery Championships in Yankton.
“I’m speechless about this. I don’t have words for it. It was all good. It was just amazing today,” said Nico, who finally has the result to match up with his long-time potential.
“I enjoyed every minute of it. It was so fun to shoot here, and to be world champion feels so awesome.”
Already a world champion in the discipline of 3D archery and a well-respected competitor, he hadn’t been able to put it all together on archery's biggest stage.
But in Yankton, he cruised through three matches to make the elite eight.
Stepping into the finals arena on a sunny – but windy – Saturday afternoon on the riverside, the 24-year-old beat Miguel Becerra of Mexico by six with a 148 and then Dane Mathias Fullerton, 147-144, to set up a gold medal match with Schloesser.
The Dutchman, who seeded second here, was going for his second world crown, having won in Belek in 2013.
And after six arrows, Mike was ahead by a point. But a, frankly, weird eight in the third end flipped the advantage – and as Schloesser struggled to find the middle, Wiener never let off.
The towering Austrian shot a last perfect end of 30 points to take the match, 146-143.
“I know [how] to make a good shot and execute it in the middle. It was a clean shot. It was perfect,” said the new champion, when asked about his very last 10.
Nico was the highest-scoring man in the finals arena.
World number one Schloesser opened the afternoon with a near-perfect match against Abhishek Verma, hitting 14 10s and one eight.
His second victory, over under-21 world champion Robin Jaatma, was comfortable, too – but against Wiener, Mike started to struggle.
“I was a bit more nervous. The conditions got me a bit worse than the previous matches I think,” he said.
"I’m very happy with how I shot mentally this week here. It was, of course, very tough conditions all week long even on the finals field. I think I stood very good in my mental part here and I’m really happy about it.”
If he had taken that last match, Schloesser would have become the first compound man to win two world titles.
Robin Jaatma and Mathias Fullerton of Denmark fought all the way to a shoot-off for compound men’s bronze.
Jaatma took a two-point lead in the first end, 29-27, before Mathias levelled things at 56 points apiece in the second. They matched each other through the rest of regulation – and sent things to a shoot-off.
Fullerton shot first and delivered a nine.
Jaatma, shooting second, landed a perfect 10 to celebrate his first international medal on the senior stage.
“It‘s really special. Not many people can say they are third best shooter in the world, it’s very special,” said Robin, who won the under-21 world title last month.
“I think I’m a bit more confident since the youth worlds in Poland. I came here with all the confidence I needed and it worked.”
Competition at the world championships concludes with recurve finals on Sunday.
