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Germany secures first medal in Munich in mixed finals

8 June 2022

Munich, Germany

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Germany's Michelle Kroppen receives a kiss from teammate, Katharina Bauer

The recurve mixed teams of Germany and Netherlands, along with the compound pairs from Estonia and Denmark will shoot for gold medals this weekend after the mixed team eliminations at the 2022 European Championships in Munich, Germany today.

Germany and Denmark both started as top seeds in their respective events. Germany’s qualification total of 1362 points was a new European record, beating the previous mark set by Tatiana Andreoli and Mauro Nespoli at the 2019 Hyundai World Archery Championships by eight, while Denmark’s 1416 equalled the current continental record, set by Netherlands in 2021.

The host nation’s Michelle Kroppen and Florian Unruh dispatched Austria and Bulgaria in straight sets before beating Italy, 5-1, in their semifinal to secure the first German podium of the tournament.

“I am very happy, Florian is very happy. It was a good day,” said Kroppen. “All of the archers, especially all of the Germans, want to shoot on Sunday in the venue, on home soil.”

Highlighting the current strength-in-depth amongst the German squad, the pairing in Munich is completely different to the duo of Katharina Bauer and Felix Wieser who won the nation’s first-ever mixed team gold medal on the Hyundai Archery World Cup circuit last month.

Sunday could see a repeat of that winning performance but Germany will face a tough Netherlands side in Gaby Schloesser and Rick Van Der Ven. The Dutch double saw off Ukraine dominantly in their semifinal, with the straight-set win seeing them drop just five points.

Earlier, the Netherlands had beaten France, 6-0, and then were made to work in a 5-3 victory over Switzerland.

“We’re really happy about it,” said Schloesser, who picked up an Olympic medal in this event when the mixed team made its Olympic Games debut in Tokyo. “There were some points where I messed up a little bit and [Rick] picked me up. He always shot amazing. I was the one struggling with nerves [but] I could tell that we were going to go shoot for gold.”

“Last month we got a medal in the World Cup so we knew that this combination could work really good. We were expecting to win a medal and expecting to do the best we could and I'm pretty sure we did it.”

“The Dutch team is good, but we are good, too,” added Kroppen about the final. “We will try to make good shots and see if we can win it.”

Denmark’s journey from top seed to final in the compound mixed team event was smooth. Tanja Gellenthien and Stephan Hansen shot scores of 157, 155 and 156 to beat the Czech Republic, Italy and then Belgium, closing the eliminations with a perfect end of 40 points.

“We did what we’re supposed to,” said a matter-of-fact Hansen. “We hit the 10s when we had to do it but sometimes you don’t have to lead all match and still win anyway. It’s fun to be in the finals.”

He was referring to the pair’s quarterfinal against Italy where the Danes needed another perfect finish to overturn a one-point deficit ahead of the fourth end.

Hansen and Gellenthien will face the in-form Estonian sister-brother combination of Lisell and Robin Jaatma in Saturday’s final.

The Estonians won the tied tiebreak against second-seed Turkey, in which both pairs shot 19 points – after finishing the match tied at 154 – but the Jaatmas had an arrow closer to the centre. They had earlier beaten Finland and the Netherlands with scores of 157 and 158 points.

“Last year we shot with Netherlands and Turkey and came second, but this year, we want to win,” said Lisell. Estonia lost to Belgium in a tiebreak in the European Championship final in Antalya last year. “It feels great to be in the final again.”

Today also featured early eliminations in both individual and team events.

There were a number of upsets, the starkest being that of Olympic medallist Lucilla Boari of Italy, the number 13 seed, dropping out to Estonia’s Bessi Kasak, the 61st seed, in a tiebreak. Kasak put down a better 10 in the single-arrow shoot-off.

Competition continues on Thursday with the business end of the brackets.

The German recurve women’s trio of Kroppen, Katharina Bauer and Charline Schwarz will now enter the competition after early byes. The last 16 also features incumbent European title holder Lisa Barbelin, three-time Paralympic medallist Elisabetta Mijno, the Greek mother-daughter pair of Maria Nasoula and Evangelia Psarra, plus an exciting match-up between the winner of the Hyundai Archery World Cup season opener, Bryony Pitman, and Gaby Schloesser.

Reigning European Champion Pablo Acha is safely through to the last 16 of the recurve men’s event – and Germany still has three athletes in the running, with Unruh joined by Jonathan Vetter and Moritz Wieser. Olympic Champion Mete Gazoz and hot hand Miguel Alvarino Garcia also join the action.

Yakup Yildiz and Tanja Gellenthien, who won the compound events at the last Europeans in Antalya, are also still in the competition.

Gellenthien will face veteran Andrea Munoz in the third round of eliminations.

Competition continues on Thursday in Munich with team eliminations in the morning and individual eliminations in the afternoon. The winners of the majority of the available quota places for the European Games will be decided by the end of the day.