2009 Pro Archery Series - Müllenborn Classic - 20/21 June

The 2009 Müllenborn Classic witnessed enthralling battles for the lead in both ladies and gents divisions with Belgians Gladys Willems and Sebastien Denayer each taking home the spoils of victory.

All eyes were on the gents division as local expert Felix Michl (GER) took an early lead on day one cleaning the first nine targets. A midday wobble dropping one or two points brought him within reach of Chris White (GBR) and the pair swapped the lead during the early afternoon... until Chris scored a 17 on his nineteenth end dropping him back down the leaderboard. Felix stayed safe in first place until a succession of 18s dropped him to fourth place and vaulted 2007 Cartel Classic winner, Sebastien Denayer (BEL) into the lead with a very impressive Tapani Kalmaru (GBR) in second place. Towards the end of day one, Chris put in a perfect final three ends to bring himself back into second place and Felix tied with Tapani in third place.

The ladies division was also a hotly contested affair with 2007 and 2008 Cartel Classic winner, Silke Höttecke (GER) taking an early lead with a lot of consistent high scoring. A late surge from Gladys Willems (BEL) brought herself back into contention finishing the day only two points back.

Click here to watch the Mullenborn event coverage

Day two took in the shorter 20 target IFAA International course with only three arrows shot per target, but the competitors still had to negotiate the same energy-sapping extreme terrain as day one. Overnight leader, Sebastien Denayer soaked up immense pressure throughout the day to beat the highly rated Chris White and claim the 3000.00 EURO top prize. It was a classy performance from the 2007 Cartel Classic winner, enhancing his reputation as one of the world's leading professional archers.

Tapani Kalmaru, Felix Michl and Rolf Hack continued their fierce third place battle right up until the penultimate target - the infamous Mullenborn cliff shot. It was here that Felix inexplicably missed the target face, scoring a zero. It was a disappointing result for Felix who had spent much of day one leading the competition. Third place overall became a tie between local expert Rolf Hack and sensational youngster Tapani Kalmaru.

In the ladies division, the battle for third place dropped further behind the leaders. Silke Höttecke, winner of the 2007 and 2008 Cartel Classic events had been on course to maintain her 100% record at Mullenborn but Gladys Willems had other ideas. Putting in a near faultless perormance, Gladys dropped only three points to Silke's eight over the first ten targets to take the lead, then held the position to the end, making it a memorable double for Belgian archers.

Attention now turns to the second round of the 2009 Pro Archery Series on 19/20 September at Fort van Lier near Antwerp in Belgium. Will Gladys and Seb score memorable home victories? Once again, pro-archery.com will bring you LIVE online event coverage together with our partners Alternative2tv.com.

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