8 takeaways: Qualification at Marrakesh 2015

Last update: 6:05pm UTC.

1. The three leading recurve women’s were neck-and-neck until the last. Frenchwomen Berengere Schuh and Audrey Adiceom both shot the same half scores, 292 then 290, to tie on 582 for the round.

Guendalina Sartori trailed the leading pair by three points, in third, at halfway, but caught up the deficit over the back straight to make the top score at 60 arrows a three-way tie. Sartori then came out on top in the trio’s coin toss that, according to the rules, ordered the three for the head-to-heads – and landed herself the lone first-round bye available!

(With 31 recurve women competing, the top seeded athlete had an automatic pass to the second round.)

2. Cuts. To make the top 32 in the compound men’s event, archers needed 560 points, in the recurve men’s, 553. All women advanced to the elimination phases.

3. USA pro Braden Gellenthien, who told us prior to qualification that at the start of the indoor season he already feels in mid-season form, backed up his pre-competition words with on-field performance.

He was clean until the 30th arrow of the ranking round, when he shot his first nine of the tournament. He only put one more in over the second 30 arrows, in the last end of the round, to finish with 598 and claim top seed.

“Lunch is gonna taste pretty good today,” Braden joked. “And would you believe I wasn’t even on my A game. I’d say it was a solid B. But I got through.”

World Archery Champion Stephan Hansen came in second, two points behind Gellenthien.

The only person to post a completely clean half – 300 out of a possible 300 points – was Mister Perfect Mike Schloesser. “I really needed it,” he said. After shooting 292 for the first half, the perfect back half pushed him up into sixth. 

4. There was a three-way shoot-off for the bottom two spots in the compound men’s and recurve men’s cuts (seeds 31 and 32). Compounders Sebastien Roy and Lars Dall – from France and Denmark, respectively – shot near-dead-centre 10s with their single arrows.

Iraqi athlete Ammar Nabeel Al-Khazraji’s nine wasn’t good enough and he lost out – like Javier Gonzalez, in the recurve competition.

5. A quarter of the competitors in Marrakesh: French. Half the archers qualifying in the top five over the four competition divisions in Marrakesh: French. The largest contingent at the event got off to a storming start during the ranking rounds.

Sandrine Vandionant led the compound women’s field with 583, and… 

6.  … JC Valladont’s 589 the recurve men’s. He shot five 30s in a row in his second half, on route to 297/300 – to put himself a point ahead for the full 60 arrows. The man one behind: Great Britain’s Patrick Huston.

7. Sarah Holst Sonnichsen scored 559 for her ranking round. You might think that looks a little low for a ’15 world silver medallist (in the junior competition in Yankton) – but there’s a reason. Her bow didn’t arrive and she shared with a friend from Denmark, shooting in the compound junior men’s competition in Marrakesh.

“It was really hard because I had to anchor right down here,” she explained, pointing about six inches under her face. Though she could borrow the bow, she couldn’t change the set-up as her teammate was using it at the same time!

“Though it wasn’t my best score, it was kinda fun. And at least I don’t have to meet the top seed tomorrow.”

Sarah landed in 11th over the compound women’s ranking round.

8. The junior competitions in Marrakesh are not part of the Indoor Archery World Cup circuit – but do offer valuable international experience to those who take part.

The top qualifiers were: Ireland’s Quintan Noonan (555) in the recurve junior men’s competition, Italy’s Rachele Lelli (526) in the recurve junior women’s and, in the compound, Danish junior man Mads Dall (568) and Amandine Goffinet (558), a French junior woman.