2010 Mullenborn Classic - 19/20 June
The fourth running of the Mullenborn Classic on 19th/20th June 2010 witnessed drama and intrigue as the Pro Archery Series came of age.
Six months before the first arrow had been shot the maximum 56 place entry was declared full - less than 90 minutes after general entries opened. This was a clear and overwhelming endorsement from the competitors and proof that the Pro Archery Series is heading in the right direction.
The harsh European winter had taken it's toll on the scenic Mullenborn venue with a number of trees uprooted during massive storms. The event directors had a race against time to completely rebuild the course and clear the debris. It is a testament to the quality and professionalism of SuSC Mullenborn that the resulting course was declared better than ever and was actually more extreme than in previous years. Certainly no one would be racking up high scores unless they were super human.
The 2010 Mullenborn Classic attracted a first class entry with competitors from Europe, China and USA. Gents division favourite Dave Cousins (USA) had already won two Pro Archery Series events from two starts, but in the preceding weeks he had lost his major sponsors following a breach of contract. Would this affect a potential third victory? Two times event winner Sebastien Denayer (BEL) had beaten world class competitor Chris White here in 2009 on a course he enjoys. Would he take advantage of Dave's current situation and score another victory against another very highly rated world class competitor?
In the Ladies division, multiple event winner, Silke Hottecke (GER) faced renewed competition from Gladys Willems (BEL) and Anne Lantee (FIN).
Gladys started Saturday with an extremely poor first six targets dropping 17 points and fell to the bottom of the Ladies leader board. The poor form was traced to a 3rd axis problem on her sight. Compared to Silke's 6 dropped points, Gladys had her work cut out to claw back a decent result, let alone hopes of a podium finish and prize money. To her credit she did exactly that. Once the problem had been sorted she put in an astonishing run of perfect or near-perfect targets on what was widely considered to be the toughest course in Pro Archery Series history put her back in to a one point lead at the end of the day with 527. An on form Anne Lantee finished the day a very close second on 526 with Silke a further point back on 525.
Day 2 saw an incredibly close battle with Anne and Gladys swapping the lead throughout the shorter 20 target round. Gladys maintained her composure to break out enough of a lead on the 18th target to finish three points ahead and secure her second Pro Archery Series event victory and 1500.00 EURO prize money. Taking third place was highly rated Target archer Claudine Jennings (GBR) who spent day one in the same group as Dave Cousins and in her own words "learnt about Field archery from the best". The experience clearly paid off with an impressive and consistent day two.
Silke's weekend had started well but sadly ended out of the prize money for the first time in her Pro Archery Series career. A poor opening four targets plus a miss on the 16th target could not be made up elsewhere. However, the dominant Silke of past Pro Archery Series events will surely return.
The Gents division battle was not as straightforward as many predicted. In fact it was the new name of Slavko Tursic (SLO) at the top of the leader board. The Slovenian 3D expert had only dropped 7 points from the first 19 targets and was looking hard to beat. Dave Cousins admitted to "basic sight mark error" with 11 points dropped. However, once he got his head "back in the game" he was near faultless on the remaining targets with a total of 547. Slavko meanwhile had maintained a high level on most of the targets but a poor 20th and 22nd targets alone doubled his dropped points tally and handed the lead over to the American. He ended his day four points back in second place with a score of 543.
Highly rated Danish legend Niels Baldur ended day one in third place with 542 but was clearly suffering from a shoulder injury which had put him out of competition for much of the year.
Andre Grawinkel (GER), now a PSE Staff Shooter, also looked impressive and was clearly enjoying the performance from himself and his new bow with a score of 541 to secure himself the fourth and final spot in the top gents group for day two.
Further back in fifth place with 540, promising young German, Florian Angerer took the title of most improved archer ahead of Tapani Kalmaru (WEL) and Roland Pepperl (GER) who both finished on 538.
With the field reset for day two in order of the finishing positions from day one, Dave and Slavko would spend the day head to head on every target. Would the 3D star from Slovenia beat one of the world's greats? It looked possible. After 16 targets Slavko had clawed back two points from Dave's original four point lead. Hopes for a grandstand finish faded when Slavko dropped two points on the 17th target and a poor final target ended his day six points adrift of Dave.
The final podium position was taken by Andre Grawinkel who maintained a consistently high form throughout the day to improve on his previous best ever finishing position. Dropping to fourth place was Niels Baldur, now in considerable pain due to his shoulder injury. Such was his discomfort; the other competitors in the top group including Dave Cousins were helping him spot arrows as even lifting a pair of binoculars became painful. We hope Niels will regain his fitness for the next round in two months time.
Rising into fifth place, Roland Pepperl made a very welcome and superb comeback to Pro Archery competition to beat his 2007 result. Vincent Vandervelden (BEL) also scored his best ever result in sixth place pushing Tapani Kalmaru and a resurgent Sebastien Denayer into joint seventh.
Special thanks go out to host club and event directors SuSC Mullenborn for their hard work and support. Also, thanks to our media partners Alternative2tv.com who once again worked their magic to create unrivalled event coverage.
The next Pro Archery Series event will take place at Fort van Lier in Belgium on 21/22 August. Will Dave Cousins continue his winning streak or will the returning Commonwealth Games hopefuls Chris White and Liam Grimwood deny him of yet more silverware?
The 2010 Pro Archery Series is brought to you by our sponsors...
- Alternative Services
- Blackrock Archery
- Merlin Archery
- Archery Direct
- Alternative2tv.com - Official Media Partner
- Lallemant-Mailliard - Official Champagne Supplier
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