USA compound men open para worlds with new world record

Matt Stutzman, Andre Shelby and Ben Thompson shot a combined 2091 out of a possible 2160 points to set a new para archery world record for the compound men’s open team ranking round at the 2019 World Archery Para Championships in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands on 3 June.

“We were after the record. We’ve been talking about it probably since Italy unofficially shot it [in Dubai]. Something like ‘if we can just come out here and just get the world record, boom, just bring it back to the US’,” said Matt, who was the top individual qualifier with 704 points.

The USA already held the official world best mark at 2063 points. Three Italian men scored 2087 points at the Fazza para world ranking tournament in April this year – but since there was no official team event it wasn’t ratified as a record.

“It’s a pretty good way to start. I’ve come out of an injury, so to shoot that well felt really good. And then, these two guys, the three of us, we’ve been shooting together since 2015 and it feels really good making our strike,” said Ben.

He and Shelby were part of the US team that set the previous record in Puerto Rico in May 2017.

Iran qualified second and China third in the compound men’s open team competition here in ’s-Hertogenbosch.

Stutzman’s field-leading 704 was six more than Ai Xinliang and Alisina Manshaezadeh, who were second and third with 698 points; Xinliang had 23 Xs to Alisina’s 18.

Marcel Pavlik, Thompson, Bulent Korkmaz, Shelby and Nathan MacQueen completed the top eight.

“I’ve shot better, but I’ve haven’t in the para team since 2016, so it’s my first international trip back,” said Stutzman. “I’m excited with the score that I did shoot. This just kind of re-solidifies all the hard work that I’ve been doing over the last couple of years to get to these scores.”

The ‘Armless Archer’ has spent the last few years attempting to qualify for the USA’s Hyundai Archery World Cup squad. He was very close to qualifying for the Hyundai World Archery Championships in Mexico City in 2017, acting as the alternate.

The 2019 Hyundai World Archery Championships take place on 10-16 June and World Archery Para Championships on 3-9 June in ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.