Florian Unruh produced one his career best performances to win the recurve men’s individual final, concluding the action in Central Florida 2025, the first Hyundai World Cup of the year.
Germany’s Unruh shot five perfect scores, three 10s in an end, on the day to claim his first World Cup stage since Antalya 2014, dropping two against Dhiraj Bommadevara and three versus superstar Mete Gazoz one of which was in the last end.
The Paris silver medallist coasted past eventual bronze medallist Bommadevara 7-1 in the usual recurve set play system but it was a far closer encounter against Gazoz, defeating the current World and European champion and Tokyo gold medallist 6-4, having squandered his initial 4-0 set lead.
To beat an archer of that calibre, hitting the 10 ring as many times as you can is your best bet at even getting a whiff of victory, which is easier said than done.
The German though, now in his 12th season on archery’s premier international circuit, did just that at Lake Myrtle Sports Park.
“I have shot good matches in the past at the World Cups but not good enough to get to the semifinal,” said Unruh who, on the outside at least, seemed the calmest of all archers from the weekend’s action. “Now finally I’ve done it and I shot good matches in Sunday’s field so, I’m pretty happy.”
“I think I got to grip with the wind pretty early and even in official practise my aiming off was pretty good. Then it progressed even further for the next days and also the wind from the right and the left was good for me this week.”
Sunday’s result also spelt the end for Unruh’s World Cup stage drought. Antalya 2014 was over a decade ago, where he beat Ku Bonchan, with his biggest and most recent successes coming alongside mixed team partner Michelle Kroppen.
Together, the pair have won silver in the 2024 Olympics, gold in the European Championships, also last year, and in Sunday’s morning session also secured bronze.
