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.
Photo by Marc Smith / MSI / Alternative2tv.com
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