2010 Pro Archery Series

The 2010 Pro Archery Series will feature two high profile events...

2009 Pro Archery Series - Fort van Lier - 19/20 September

European Professional Archery made a spectacular entrance onto the Belgian archery scene on 19th/20th September with bright, warm sunshine greeting the top professional archers and a phenomenal course set in the unique venue of Fort van Lier near Antwerp.

The first day of competition took in a 28 target IFAA Field round with traditional scenic woodland and lakeside shots combined with some extraordinary challenges amongst the ruins of a WW1 fort.

Chris White (GBR), second at the 2009 Mullenborn Classic event in June, ended the first day of competition with a highly impressive 92 X scores. A superb, solid and reliable performance. Whilst others around him had rolls of good form, they were unable to maintain that same consistency throughout the day.

The mercurial Dave Cousins (USA) was also on top form. His technique and ability to put arrows into the middle time after time is astounding. He didn't shoot too many bad shots throughout the day but those he did came through poor sight marks, most painfully at the end of the day when he dropped 3 points on his final target. He ended up just one point behind Chris.

Liam Grimwood (GBR), fresh from winning the silver medal at the World Target Championships in Korea just a few days earlier, shot very well dropping only one point throughout the morning. He dropped a few more around the building complex as his group slowly worked their way around the course.

Highly rated Andre Grawinkel (GER) joined the top group for day two. With a fine pedigree at European and World field archery events, he appears to be making a welcome return to form after a couple of disappointing years.

There was only one name on top in the Ladies division, multiple champion Silke Höttecke (GER) led throughout the day. Recently married Anne Lantee (FIN) dropped 7 points leaving her with plenty to do on Sunday.

The second day of action promised to be a thriller. Would Chris White maintain his slender lead over Dave Cousins? Would Dave bounce back from his costly error? Would Liam Grimwood outscore both and snatch victory away?

A shorter 20 target IFAA International round stood between Chris White and his maiden Pro Archery Series victory. With the shooting groups re-seeded in the order of the first day results, Chris and Dave would compete side by side throughout the day.
The gap remained constant for the first half but the crucial moment came on their eleventh target when Chris dropped a point. The scores were even. Would we see our first ever tie breaker?

With Dave continuing on his way to scoring the first perfect round seen on the Pro Archery Series, Chris dropped another point on their twelfth and fifteenth targets and finished the competition two points down. Disappointed that he had missed out on his first Series victory Chris still took home a decent 1,853.96 EURO in prize money and moved to the top of the 2009 Pro Archery Series Winnings list.
Dave Cousins lived up to his reputation to score a perfect round. A memorable victory and a cool 3,089.94 EURO in prize money.

Other notable performances came from Robert Abstreiter (GER) who took fourth place ahead of Andre Grawinkel who tied for fifth place with Jari Haavisto (FIN) who started the day in joint ninth place and even matched Chris White’s excellent second day score.

In the Ladies division, Silke Höttecke started the day with a very comfortable seven point lead over Anne Lantee, but a run of targets with Anne showing exceptional form led to the gap shrink to almost nothing. The pressure was on. Silke rose to the challenge to re-open the gap to six points and score her third Series victory.

The 2009 season has seen the Pro Archery Series come of age with two fantastic venues producing two awesome events. Thanks go out to SuSC Mullenborn and KJSS for their hard work and support. Also, thanks to our media partners Alternative2tv.com who have worked their magic to create the level of event coverage never before seen in the sport of archery. 2010 promises to be even better.

The 2009 Pro Archery Series was brought to you by our sponsors...
Alternative Services
Cartel Archery
Merlin Bows
University of Edinburgh Centre for Sport and Exercise
Alternative2tv
The Official Champagne Supplier of the 2009 Pro Archery Series was Lallemant-Mailliard.

WATCH THE EVENT COVERAGE HERE...

Photo by Marc Smith / MSI / Alternative2tv.com

2009 Pro Archery Series - Müllenborn Classic - 20/21 June

The 2009 Müllenborn Classic witnessed enthralling battles for the lead in both ladies and gents divisions with Belgians Gladys Willems and Sebastien Denayer each taking home the spoils of victory.

All eyes were on the gents division as local expert Felix Michl (GER) took an early lead on day one cleaning the first nine targets. A midday wobble dropping one or two points brought him within reach of Chris White (GBR) and the pair swapped the lead during the early afternoon... until Chris scored a 17 on his nineteenth end dropping him back down the leaderboard. Felix stayed safe in first place until a succession of 18s dropped him to fourth place and vaulted 2007 Cartel Classic winner, Sebastien Denayer (BEL) into the lead with a very impressive Tapani Kalmaru (GBR) in second place. Towards the end of day one, Chris put in a perfect final three ends to bring himself back into second place and Felix tied with Tapani in third place.

The ladies division was also a hotly contested affair with 2007 and 2008 Cartel Classic winner, Silke Höttecke (GER) taking an early lead with a lot of consistent high scoring. A late surge from Gladys Willems (BEL) brought herself back into contention finishing the day only two points back.

Click here to watch the Mullenborn event coverage

Day two took in the shorter 20 target IFAA International course with only three arrows shot per target, but the competitors still had to negotiate the same energy-sapping extreme terrain as day one. Overnight leader, Sebastien Denayer soaked up immense pressure throughout the day to beat the highly rated Chris White and claim the 3000.00 EURO top prize. It was a classy performance from the 2007 Cartel Classic winner, enhancing his reputation as one of the world's leading professional archers.

Tapani Kalmaru, Felix Michl and Rolf Hack continued their fierce third place battle right up until the penultimate target - the infamous Mullenborn cliff shot. It was here that Felix inexplicably missed the target face, scoring a zero. It was a disappointing result for Felix who had spent much of day one leading the competition. Third place overall became a tie between local expert Rolf Hack and sensational youngster Tapani Kalmaru.

In the ladies division, the battle for third place dropped further behind the leaders. Silke Höttecke, winner of the 2007 and 2008 Cartel Classic events had been on course to maintain her 100% record at Mullenborn but Gladys Willems had other ideas. Putting in a near faultless perormance, Gladys dropped only three points to Silke's eight over the first ten targets to take the lead, then held the position to the end, making it a memorable double for Belgian archers.

Attention now turns to the second round of the 2009 Pro Archery Series on 19/20 September at Fort van Lier near Antwerp in Belgium. Will Gladys and Seb score memorable home victories? Once again, pro-archery.com will bring you LIVE online event coverage together with our partners Alternative2tv.com.

The 2009 Pro Archery Series is brought to you by our sponsors...