Arm-less archer Stutzman makes comeback to enter final, India’s compound mixed team make history

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

An armless-archer face-off is all set for the weekend as USA’s Matt Stutzman made an incredible comeback to enter the individual compound men open final at the Dubai 2022 World Archery Para Championships here on Wednesday.

Stutzman, the famous armless archer, who was seeded 54nd after a malfunction in his equipment (broke his release break) in the ranking event on Tuesday only to rally from the back and setting up a final with fellow ‘armless archer’ Aleksandr Gombozhapov of Russian Federation.

The US star overcame Hadi Nori 140-139, while Gombozhapov defeated Bair Shigaev of Russian Federation 140-138 in their respective semi-finals.

In fact, it was the first-time arm-less archers competed against each other when the US star faced Belgium’s Van Montagu Piotr in the third round.

“Reaching the finals feels I am already a winner. I am a chaser and I perform better when I come from the back. So, I stayed motivated and made sure each shot counted.”

“It's going to be awesome. It’s going to go viral. This is amazing,” Stutzman said on his final match against Gombozhapov, who calls Stutzman his ‘hero’.

The 39-year-old USA archer, the London 2012 Paralympic silver medallist, will also be gunning for his first World Championships individual title here.

Earlier, Indian compound para archers Shyam Sundar Swami and Jyoti Baliyan created history storming into the finals of the Mixed Team event at the Dubai 2022  event.

This is the first time Indian archers have made it to the gold medal match having participated in three World Championships now after the Beijing 2017 and and s-Hertogenbosch 2019 where Paralympian archer Rakesh Kumar came close to winning the bronze medal in the Netherlands.

On the second day of the championships, the pair of Swami and Baliyan shot brilliantly to defeat France comprising Julie Rigault Chupin and Thierry Joussaume 151-145 in the semi-finals.

They had started the day with a win over Iraq 151-138 in the second round, before pipping Italy by just one point 147-146 in the quarter-finals.

The team now faces the Russian Federation on Friday.

Baliyan said: “It’s a very proud feeling to become the first ever para-archer from India to win a medal at the World Championships. The entire team has worked very hard and I am happy that we could execute our plans and follow the process here as well. Dubai has been a happy hunting ground for me, three medals in three championships so far. I hope to make it memorable with a perfect score on Friday."