Dauelesen wins German national league title

Pictures courtesy Frank Heinen.

SV Dauelsen’s Sebastian Rohrberg, Florian Kahllund and Andreas Gerhardt won Germany’s 2017 national indoor archery league title at the Bundesliga Bogensport final in Wiesbaden by defeating SV Querem in the gold medal match, 6-2.

“It’s always great to win. It’s the second time we’ve won – two years ago we won. It’s just fun,” said Kahllund, the 2014 European Champion.

He explained that Dauelsen was his second club, which he began representing when his previous team stopped shooting in the Bundesliga.

“I don’t train with my teammates very often but I know them very well. Sebastien was in the national team a few years ago and when I was little he was my hero… until I beat him [laughs]. Andreas, we’ve known each other for 10 years or so, and he also comes from the north of Germany where I come from.”

Dauelsen reserves were Manuel Augner and Holger Rohrbeck.

The German archery league is contested between mixed-gender recurve teams from clubs around the country, which is split into two – north and south – regions.

The top four teams from each region were invited to the Bundesliga final, held in Halle am Platz der Deutschen Einheit, a modern volleyball arena in the heart of Wiesbaden, on Saturday 18 February 2017. Each team could bring up to eight archers but could choose only three to shoot each match, which were run to standard World Archery rules.

The eight teams were split into two groups of four for an initial round robin phase and the top two qualifiers from those groups advanced to the semifinal matches.

In the first semi, two-time World Archery Field Champion Sebastian Rohrberg and Dauelsen upset defending league champion BSC BB-Berlin, the winners of group A, 6-2. Dauelsen shot 60 out of a possible 60 points in the opening set and never trailed in the match.

Group B winner SV Querem also shot a perfect opening six-arrow series in its semifinal against SGI Welzhen. Querem, featuring Rio Olympian Florian Floto, increased its advantage in the second and did enough in the third set to advance, 5-1.

While Querem couldn’t find a groove early in the final, Dauelsen came out strong. A pair of 59-point sets, to Querem’s 57s, jumped Dauelsen out to a 4-0 lead before their opponent fought back.

A 59-57 third set went the opposite way, drawing the match back to 4-2.

At the end of the fourth set, Dauelsen required 28 points from its last three arrows to secure victory. Rohrberg and Gerhadt both shot 10s, leaving Kahllund needing an eight to secure the match. 

He shot a nine – and Dauelsen won its second German national league title.

Berlin beat Welzheim in the bronze medal match, 6-2.

“I had fun. I enjoyed it – and that’s the reason that I’m shooting,” said Berlin’s Lisa Unruh, Rio 2016 Olympic silver medallist. “It’s not really a different feeling [wearing my club shirt or my national shirt] because I have feelings for my country and feelings to my club.”

The other four teams to compete in the 2017 Bundesliga Bogensport final represented Blankenfelder BS 08, FSG Tacherting, BSG Ebersberg and Villingen-Schwenningen.

Over 1000 spectators attended the event which, said German Federation Secretary General Jorg Brokamp, was developed to raise the level of national-level tournament and competition experience for the country’s archers.

“We wanted to involve the clubs more. Archery is club-based in Germany and while we have the individual national championships we wanted to have a team-based event,” he explained. 

“It’s very motivating for the teams. They see it as an honour. They appreciate very much the level, the stage, they are performing on.”

Wiesbaden is home to the German shooting and archery federation and the city has provided the venue for the Bundesliga finals since it was turned into a spectator event in 2016.

“Every archer is comparing themselves to their heroes on the international level and, I think, here they get a taste of that international level,” added Brokamp, who said that the event would continue to evolve to secure wider exposure.

“ZDF had 7.5 million viewers [during Lisa’s gold medal match at the Games] and people here see the same rhythm and format as the Olympics.”

The Bundesliga Bogensport final took place on 18 February 2017 in Wiesbaden, Germany.