Lopez increases X-count on matchplay world record

Update on 7 September 2017: This score was not ratified as a world record due to a failure to meet ratification requirements.

Colombian compound archer Sara Lopez scored 150 points with 11Xs during matchplay at her national selection trials for the World Archery Championships, setting a new world record subject to ratification, breaking her own record by one X and bringing it within one of the men’s mark.

“In the last end I had to shoot two Xs to break the record. The first arrow was a 10 and then the other two, I was relaxed, completely, I tried the best I could and both arrows landed in the X,” she said.

Lopez shot the previous 15-arrow 50-metre match record – 150 10X – during the third stage of the 2013 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Medellin, Colombia.

When a record reaches the perfect score, X-count (the small inner-ring in the 10) is used to define subsequent world records. The maximum possible record for the compound match is 150 15X.

Lopez said that despite shooting about nine perfect-150 matches, this was the first time she had come close to that 10X mark since originally breaking the record four years ago.

“It was the right time to shoot the world record because last week I wasn’t shooting as I am used to and I wanted to train a lot this week as I’m about to fly to Rome. The record was exactly what I needed to get the right attitude and be at my best,” she said.

Sara won the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final in 2014 and 2015 and competes in her fourth edition of the circuit finale this weekend in Italy.

“Being able to improve the Xs after so many years gives me a lot of confidence because my goals for the year were the World Games and the World Championships, not so much the World Cup as I have already achieved that.”

As of the end of August 2017, Lopez owns the compound women’s 15-arrow match, 1440 Round, 50-metre 72-arrow round and 36 arrows at 50 metres world records. She is ranked number two in the world behind Sarah Sonnichsen, after maintaining a position at the top for 1033 days to 26 June 2017.

The nearly-three years ranked first was a record since the launch of the Hyundai Archery World Cup circuit in 2006.