Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Matt Stutzman Wins Indoor Para World Cup Gold

BANGKOK, Thailand - Matt Stutzman (Salt Lake City, Utah), Paralympic silver medalist, will add yet another medal to his collection: the gold medal from this week's Indoor Para Archery World Cup.

The event, held just after the Indoor Archery World Cup, was exclusive to para archers who have been classified to compete in this division. Archers were ranked based on a sixty-arrow qualification round, and then bracketed for head to head competition.

Stutzman was the top qualified para archer with a score of 582 for the compound open category, which was a mixed gender group. In the quarterfinals, he met Russia's Olga Polegaeva, who he defeated with a 145-139 win. Moving on to the semifinals, Stutzman faced Aleksandr Zubar, also of Russia, whose score of 141 points wasn't quite strong enough to edge out Stutzman, who put up a 144.

In the gold medal final, Stutzman shot a 147 - just three points shy of perfect - to claim his medal versus Hong Kong's Wong Siu Wing, who finished with the silver. Bronze went to Russia's Stepanida Artakhinova. Stutzman also reportedly earned a new world record at the event, though official word was not yet available as of this posting.

The United States also had an entry in the recurve event. Rio 2016 Paralympic hopeful Steve Bosson (Salt Lake City, Utah) qualified ninth with a 518, and won his first match in the 1/8 round. In the quarterfinal, however, he was unable to stop Russia's Anton Zyapaev, who eventually went on to take silver. Gold in the recurve event went to Netsiri Hanreuchai (THA), and Bato Tsydenorzhiev (RUS) won bronze.

Scores from the Indoor Para Archery World Cup may be found at: http://www.worldarchery.org/EVENTS/Indoor-World-Cup/2014-2015/Bangkok/Para-Archery-Event.