Unruh ends individual Hyundai Archery World Cup medal drought
Florian Unruh produced one of his career-best performances to win the recurve men’s individual gold, as the first Hyundai Archery World Cup of the year concluded in Central Florida 2025.
This victory marks Unruh’s first individual stage win since Antalya 2014.
An Olympic mixed team silver medallist from Paris 2024, the German archer shot five perfect scores of 30 points and three ends of 29 throughout the day. He dropped only two points against eventual bronze medallist Dhiraj Bommadevara and three versus reigning World and European Champion Mete Gazoz, including one in the final set.
“To beat an archer like Gazoz, you need to hit the 10-ring as many times as you can,” shared Unruh, who seemed the calmest of all in this weekend’s action. “I’ve shot good matches in the past, but not good enough to reach the semifinals. Now finally I’ve done it, so I’m pretty happy.”
Unruh, now in his 12th season on archery’s premier international circuit, attributed his success to his ability to adapt to the windy conditions at Lake Myrtle Sports Park.
“I think I got to grip with the wind pretty early, and even in official practice, my aiming off was pretty good,” he explained. “Then it progressed even further for the next days, and also the wind was good for me this week.”
Sunday’s result also spelt the end for Unruh’s decade-long individual World Cup stage drought, his last victory being in 2014 in Antalya, where he beat Ku Bonchan.
The 31-year-old German archer has also found success in the mixed team event with partner Michelle Kroppen, securing silver at the Olympics and gold at the European Championships on home soil last year. The pair added another medal together in the mixed team event with bronze earlier this Sunday.
When asked if his individual win felt more significant, Unruh disputed any added importance.
“Yes and no, because mixed team is also really nice to win. It also helped me today to shoot with Michelle in the morning, and I really like both.”
While Unruh remained composed, the crowd in Central Florida witnessed an emotional outpouring from recurve women’s gold medallist Penny Healey.
The 20-year-old Briton, who revealed earlier she had been struggling mentally over the past 18 months – her last outdoor medal dating back to the European Games in June 2023 – secured a commanding 6-0 victory over Pan American Games Champion Alejandra Valencia.
Buoyed by her recent indoor triumph in Nimes this January, Healey revealed in the week she was in a “really happy place at the moment” and her improved mental state helped her shoot two ends of 28 sandwiching a perfect 30 in the gold medal match this Sunday.
The streams of joyous tears that poured out of Healey’s eyes on the podium were therefore more than understandable.
“It was a rollercoaster,” she shared, visibly emotional. “I haven’t been here for two years now; it’s crazy. I remember saying to the psych, ‘Quarterfinals is a great week,’ but medalling – I just didn’t think I would. But it’s happened now and it’s crazy.”
With the conclusion of recurve Sunday, the archery action at Central Florida 2025 came to an end.
The Hyundai Archery World Cup moves to Shanghai, China, for stage two on 6-11 May.
Podiums: Central Florida 2025
Full results on the event page.
Recurve men
- Florian Unruh, Germany
- Mete Gazoz, Türkiye
- Dhiraj Bommadevara, India
Recurve women
- Penny Healey, Great Britain
- Alejandra Valencia, Mexico
- Li Jiaman, China
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