Amanda Mlinaric breaks European junior record with 704 and top seed in Antalya

Seventeen-year-old Amanda Mlinaric scored 704 out of a possible 720 points for the 72-arrow 50-metre ranking round to set a new European junior record – subject to ratification – and lead qualification at the third stage of the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Antalya, Turkey.

“I had a good practice yesterday. I was just thinking about my technique and nothing else, and I didn’t worry a lot,” she said. “Obviously I feel extremely happy, I was never that good in the wind. I definitely didn’t think I’d shot well enough to lead.”

She also currently holds the cadet world record at 699 points.

Antalya is only Amanda’s fourth major event and third career appearance on the Hyundai Archery World Cup. She finished ninth in Berlin in 2017 and 2018, and 17th at the Hyundai World Archery Championships in Mexico City in 2017.

Turkish world number one Yesim Bostan tied Mlinaric’s score of 704 points but the Croatian archer took the top seed on 10-count.

Paige Pearce (702), Jeanine van Kradenburg (701) and Alexis Ruiz (701) also shot more than 700 points, making five athletes above the mark in total and the highest number of compound women to reach that level in the history of the Antalya stage. (Three did so in 2018 and 2016.)

Sara Lopez, Danelle Wentzel and Viktoria Balzhanova completed the top eight, the latter needing to beat Sarah Prieels in a shoot-off to secure the eighth seed.

World number two Lopez was leading at halfway with 356 points but dropped down to sixth with a sub-par back 36 arrows.

The USA took the top seed in each of the team events.

Great Britain’s compound women seeded fourth and broke the junior team ranking round world record for the second time this year. Layla Annison, Ella Gibson and Lucy Mason increased their own score by nine to a combined 2075 points.

The third stage of the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup takes place on 20-26 May in Antalya, Turkey.

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