‘S-HERTOGENBOSCH, Netherlands – USA’s Ben Thompson and Matt Stutzman topped the podium at the World Archery Para Championships this afternoon. With Thompson smashing the gold, he took the World Champion title and locked up the third out of three possible Paralympic quota slots for Team USA.
Thompson came in strong, opening with a 2-point lead that just grew as he smoked the 10 ring. With a 146-135 win over Turkey’s Turan, Thompson was the decisive victor. “I felt really good, the shots went great from start to finish, minus that last arrow in the eight, but I was just a little quick on it,” shared Thompson. “This is almost a monkey off my back. I’ve medaled at almost every international tournament, but I’ve never been able to hold the win.”
Thompson won bronze in 2017 and has had bronze finishes at the last Para Pan American Games and Championships.
Matt Stutzman also had a commanding lead throughout his match to take a 142-136 win over India’s Kumar. Stutzman shared: “You can always do better, but I knew it was going to be a game of who could adapt fastest to the conditions on the finals field, which weirdly made me too calm and I didn’t really feel any nerves until the last three arrows, which turned out to be 10s so that was great.”
Competition resumes tomorrow with recurve finals where Eric Bennett will shoot for the recurve open men’s individual title and the men’s team will also go for gold. Complete results from the competition are available at www.worldarchery.org. The finals this weekend will be live at www.olympicchannel.com/live. For more, follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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