DUBAI – USA Archers Matt Stutzman and Lia Coryell made history on the world stage in the United Arab Emirates this week, winning gold and world para champion titles. Stutzman, taking the compound men open title in the world’s first armless final, shooting against an archer he’d initially inspired to take up the sport, had the crowd roaring with excitement. Coryell became the USA’s first woman W1 world champion and announced her retirement from competing in the sport following this season.
Competition in Dubai concluded today with recurve matches through the finals. Eric Bennett, USA’s four-time Paralympian, 2015 world para champion and silver medalist at the previous edition, had the best result, climbing the brackets from a 13th place seed to finish 6th. Bennett was on fire, coming out of his first match of the day strong to then shoot the highest scores on the field in the round of 16 for an easy 6-0 shut out before falling to Italy’s Giuseppe Verzini 6-2 in the quarterfinals.
Bennett’s teammates Timothy Palumbo and Paralympic Champion were both stopped short in the first match of the day. 21st seed Palumbo took Slovakia’s David Ivan to a shoot off after an exciting back and forth battle, but Ivan’s shoot off X sealed the win.
Candice Caesar went out 6-0 in her first match against Ukraine’s Anna-Viktoria Shevchenko.
Complete results from the competition are available via World Archery and medal match videos are on World Archery TV.
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