Anthony Barbier finally won the GT Open on his fifth attempt as he defeated Alen Remar to win his first ever international recurve men medal.
Barbier, who was one of 72 French entries across all senior compound and recurve events in Strassen, had come ninth twice (2018 and 2019), fourth (2022) and 17th (2023) in his previous efforts but put in a career best string of results at this year’s second stage of the Indoor World Series to end his hunt for a podium finish.
It culminated in him beating second qualifying seed Remar in the gold medal match on Sunday afternoon, defeating him 6-4 in the recurve set point scoring system.
“I’m obviously really happy,” said 24 year old Barbier. “It feels a little bit unreal. It’s a lot of work that’s paying right now.”
“I had quite a good qualification. I struggled a little bit with my mental game. I was not really satisfied with my first two matches but then this morning, things went better and I’m quite happy with how I shot.”
As the score suggested, it was a tight encounter. The tone of the match was set after the first two ends as Barbier dropped an opening 30 to take the first set, Remar responding with his own in the second to tie the scores at 2-2.
Both shot 29 in the next two sets meaning the match was left on a knife edge with it being 4-4 heading into the fifth and final end, but it was 25 year old Remar who blinked first, dropping two nines for the first time in the match to hit 28, Barbier hitting his last two arrows into the 10 ring to capitalise and take the gold.
