Kahllund on Lausanne performance: “I kept calm and shot really well”

Florian Kahllund who studies Computer Science at the University of Kiel. He’s the reiging European Champion – but he shoot in any competitions for the first two years he practised the sport. Emerging as a cadet, his first national event came in 2009.

”In 2011 I joined the youth national team,” he says. “And now archery is my profession.”

In the beginning, archery was a hobby. Florian shot once a week with friends. Now, it’s something different…

“It’s about that perfect shot.” 

The attitude of a hobbyist is gone. Kahllund has a deeper drive to his archery these days – competitiveness: “I prefer shooting international competitions, because the opponents are stronger. What I like most about international competitions is that there are so many great archers.”

Against great archers, this last year was a successful one for the young German. The 21-year-old successfully transistioned from junior to senior and collected a reasonable medal haul as the German recurve team posted its most decorated season in some years.

Florian collected gold at the European Championships in Echmiadzin, Armenia, but considers winning the Antalya stage of the Archery World Cup as an even bigger success.

“Nearly all big archery nations were there; and so it feels better than the win of the European Championships,” he explains.  

At the World Cup in Antalya, Turkey, Florian collected his first World Cup stage title. In the qualification round, he shot a personal best – and the trend continued well into the eliminations.

Against Korea's Ku Bonchan in the final, Florian jumped to a 3-1 lead before Ku evened the match. In the end: it came down to a single arrow.

“I had no doubt that Bonchan would shoot very well and I was surprised that I got to the fifth set. There I had to shoot with my spare bow, because I broke my arrow rest. I didn’t want to shoot my spare bow at the training field; and so I had to aim in the low right blue. I was lucky to get to the shoot-off. I saw his arrow in the nine and thought that I could win this,” remembers Florian. “The last shot was good and went into the 10.”

In July 2014 Florian collected gold at the European Championships.

“In the qualification round at the European Championships I didn’t shoot as well as I hoped,” admits Florian. “In the team finals we shot very well and got to the gold match, in which we lost against the very strong Frenchmen.”

Florian says one of his most significant matches of the year was the bronze medal match against Netherlands Rick van der Ven at the Lausanne World Cup Final 2014, where he started off with five 10’s and a clear lead, but split sets two and three before losing the final two. 

“I shot very well in the beginning, but lost in the end. I’d liked to shoot a bit better in the last end,” explains Florian. “Rick is very consistent at shooting tens and his last ends were very good.”

Archers need to focus on their technique in every shot, according to the German recurve archer: “The technique and the ability to shoot with this technique under all circumstances is the most important thing in archery… Most archers can improve their technique or shooting better under pressure. I work on my technique almost every arrow.”

According to Florian being a relaxed person also helps him a little in archery: “If I can stay relaxed under pressure, then that’s very good for my score.”

The future for this bright young German: he wants to shoot as long as he can in the German national team. All the while, those studies need finishing – and he sees himself eventually becoming a programmer.