In the 10m and 30m disciplines, the best Match Crossbow shooters met in Strasbourg to determine the World Cup winners and the shooters of the year 2023.
Friday, October 6th started with the 30m discipline qualification and finals. From the 16 nominated shooters, 14 went to the start and competed for entering the finals. The competition commenced with a high level of performance, manifested among others in a series of world record, mostly rewriting old ones achieved in August at the World Cup in Wil.
The first (equalised) world record went to Thomas Debenne (FRA) for 290 points in standing position. After switching to kneeling, he added 296 points and this result, and the total (586) marked another two world records. With this qualification achievement, he went as a leader to the finals.
The wind during the kneeling half of the match was visible, but negligible. This, and the amount of competition possibilities during the season, made more world records possible. Joëlle Baumgartner (SUI) raised her own kneeling record from 295 to 297 points in the category of women; for the seniors, Christof Arnold (SUI) raised the kneeling world record to 292 and Stephan Loretz (SUI) the world record for combination to 571.
In the final competition of the best 8 from the qualification, a very tight contest for gold was on the way. Until the 10th shot, both Thomas Debenne (FRA) and Joël Brüschweiler (SUI), were ex aequo with only two points of loss. After an 8 for the Swiss shooter, the difference seemed to emerge, but after the next 3 shots, the equality was re-established again. The last three shots, however, decided about the victory and the small crystal globe for Thomas Debenne, Joël Brüschweiler taking the silver position. Bronze went to Joëlle Baumgartner (SUI).
On the evening the same day, the World Cup winner in the 10m category of women was also on the programme. 13 shooters went to the line for the qualification; after 40 shots the best 8 proceeded to the finals. Lisa Roettelé (FRA) managed to confirm her lead from the qualification and won gold and the small crystal globe. After a very hard fight, the second place and silver medal was taken by Britta Wolf (GER), who entered the finals as the 8th placed shooter. Bronze went to Anaëlle Capelle (FRA), going down one place from the qualification. For the athletes and officials, it was a very long day, ending after 20:00, but the spirit was up, despite the fact that some of the shooters competed also in the 30m discipline!
On Saturday October 7th, men went on the line for the qualification and finals in the 10m event. Every nation from 5 participating had at least one representative in the finals, with France being the luckiest. Thomas Debenne (FRA), the winner of the 30m events, was also here the undisputed leader and took gold along with the World Cup. The fight for silver was very spectacular: Joël Brüschweiler (SUI) entered the finals at position 8, but through very consistent shooting and a series of straight 10s was in lead till the 7th shot. After shot 8, an 8, the fight for gold was also a fight for bronze, because of a string of 10s by Michaël Dhalluin (FRA) opened everything again. At the end, silver went to Joël and bronze to Michaël, by only one point difference each.
Saturday was also the day of the IVC (Euroleague) finals. For some shooters, it meant the third or even fourth start on this weekend. Big respect to all! IVC results can be downloaded here.
Both big crystal globes for the Shooter of the Year went to France: Thomas Debenne won the 30m ranking of 27 starters and Romain Meignan the 10m ranking of 54 athletes who collected at least one ranking point.
Look up the following links for the final World Cup results and ranking.
