Turkish compounders Evren Cagiran, Gizem Elmaagacli top European indoor qualification

Turkey’s Evren Cagiran and Gizem ElmaagacliMax Mandia of Italy and France’s Angeline Cohendet took the top individual seeds after the ranking round at the 2019 European Indoor Archery Championships in Samsun, Turkey.

It’s a familiar location for compound leader Cagiran.

“I have shot a lot of times here for national competitions. I really like the place,” he said. “When we have an international event in Turkey I always trust myself and feel more confident.”

Cagiran scored 597 out of the possible 600 points for the 60-arrow 18-metre ranking round, two up on second-placed Martin Damsbo.

The 26-year old, currently ranked as the 21st compound man in the world, has had previous success on home soil. He won the Turkish stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in 2016 in Antalya.

His teammate Elmaagacli also has World Cup history in Turkey, too – in Samsun, even.

She received the invitational spot to the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final that closed the outdoor season in 2018. Gizem finished sixth at that event, losing to winner Sara Lopez in the quarterfinals.

At this European indoors, her 592-point qualification led Alexandra Savenkova and recently crowned Indoor Archery World Series Champion Viktoria Balzhanova by two.

“I had a great training camp just before this competition and I knew what I had to do to hit the 10-ring,™ said Gizem.

Among the women she out-qualified was Yesim Bostan, another Turkish compounder and the reigning world number one.

“My process through the indoor team selection was smooth and strong, and I won. As soon as I got the place, I started to focus on my competition routine,” added Elmaagacli.

“I hope I can manage to keep shooting how I’ve started this competition until the very end.”

Gizem also outscored her brother, 2015 Archery World Cup Champion Demir, by three.

Italy’s Max Mandia was the only recurve man to hit 590 points for the round. Five others came in on 588 and they included Mete Gazoz, the young Olympian from Turkey was named World Archery’s recurve man and breakthrough athlete of 2018 two weeks ago.

The top recurve women’s ranking round score was 585, courtesy Frenchwoman Angeline Cohendet.

Turkey’s Erdal Meric Dal, Zhanna Naumova of Ukraine, Norwegian archer Anders Faugstad and Elizaveta Knzayeva of Russia were the top-ranked junior archers after qualification.

Competition at the 2019 European Indoor Archery Championships runs for another three days. Team finals take place on Friday; individual finals take place on Saturday 2 March.

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