Preview: World Cup warm-up for top European teams in Antalya
A strong, mainly European and very much recurve, field is set to compete this week in Turkey at the Spring Arrows world ranking and World Cup warm-up event on the renowned field in Antalya.
Reigning Olympic Champion, recurve men’s world number two and national hero Mete Gazoz is the top name in contention for honours on home soil. He’s appearing alongside the rest of the recently-selected Turkish recurve team for 2022.
Turkey’s compound squads, eight archers in total, will also compete.
With 12 archers, Germany is the second biggest squad at the Spring Arrows. The team features reigning Indoor Archery World Series Champion Felix Wieser alongside world number nine Florian Unruh and women’s world number 14 and Olympic team bronze medallist Michelle Kroppen.
Other names to look out for are Nicholas d’Amour, Dan Olaru, Elisa Tartler and Alexandra Mirca.
The Hyundai Archery World Cup starts in just two weeks at this same venue in Antalya.
With many archers in the Americas and Asia having had early competitions – in Puerto Rico and Phuket – as pre-season sharpeners, this is the European contingent’s opportunity to knock off the 70-metre matchplay rust.
Key information
What’s happening? The Spring Arrows Kahraman Bagatir tournament on 7-10 April 2022 in Antalya, Turkey.
What’s at stake? World ranking points, vital preparation and familiarisation ahead of the start of the Hyundai Archery World Cup, opening in this same venue later this month.
What’s the story? This is the first major outdoor event of the new season for archers in Europe and the final chance to get things right on the eve of the new international season.
Event schedule
- Thursday 7 April: Qualifying
- Friday 8 April: Eliminations (Individual)
- Saturday 9 April: Team eliminations
- Sunday 10 April: Finals
How to watch
World Archery is streaming two medal sessions live on its YouTube channel.
- Live: Recurve team finals – 10 April at 10h00 UTC+3 (local)
- Live: Recurve finals – 10 April at 16h00 UTC+3 (local)
Live scores will be available on the World Archery website, and there will be coverage on World Archery’s digital platforms throughout the competition.
Mouthtab first
Para archer Guillaume Toucoullet is one of the seven members of the French squad competing in Antalya, just a few weeks removed from his individual silver medal at the 2022 World Archery Para Championships in Dubai. The former elite para rower qualified as a reserve for the able-bodied team during selections held in late March.
To our knowledge, he is the only archer to shoot with a mouthtab to ever be selected for an international able-bodied team.
Who’s competing?
These are the top-ranked archers competing at the Spring Arrows tournament:
- Recurve men: Mete Gazoz, Turkey (world rank: 2)
- Recurve women: Michelle Kroppen, Germany (world rank: 14)
- Compound men: Yakup Yildiz, Turkey (world rank: 13)
- Compound women: Yesim Bostan, Turkey (world rank: 19)
A total of 65 archers from the national teams of the following 11 countries are registered to compete at the tournament: Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Morocco, Moldova, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey, Uzbekistan and the US Virgin Islands.
Competition at the Spring Arrows Kahraman Bagatir starts with qualification on Thursday.
