6 August 2023 Berlin, Germany
Mete Gazoz kept calm in torrential rain to win the recurve men’s individual title at the 2023 Hyundai World Archery Championships in Berlin.
Gazoz beat Canadian Eric Peters 6-4 in the final, becoming the first man since Darrell Pace in 1976 to simultaneously hold world and Olympic titles.
The Turkish archer edged world number one Marcus D’Almeida 7-3 in a heavyweight semifinal after drawing the first three sets, with D’Almeida going on to take bronze after a 6-4 victory over Indonesia's Arif Pangestu in the third-place decider.
The Brazilian and the Indonesian both sealed Olympic places for their countries in third and fourth alongside Canada courtesy of Peters' silver.
Gazoz had already helped his country secure a quota place as Türkiye won silver in the recurve men’s team event yesterday.
“Today I feel like I am the best archer on the planet, and I will continue like this,” Gazoz said. “I love Berlin but now I love it even more."
"I won my first World Cup medal and my second World Cup stage in Berlin, and now my first World Championship medal. I hope the next World Championship is in Berlin!”
“You have to use your brain and your whole body because it is windy, and then two minutes later it is raining, and then two minutes later it is sunny.”
“In the semifinal against Marcus, it was a really hard match. I wanted to win the gold medal and of course so did Marcus because last world championships he won silver.”
Peters came fifth at the Hyundai Archery World Cup earlier this year in Türkiye, where he beat Gazo, but was unable to repeat the feat in Berlin. His silver medal is the best result in Canada’s history as the 26-year-old fought hard across all sets.
He was enthusiastically cheered on by mental performance coach Joe Lesner as he looked to enjoy the finals stage and the silver medal marks a just reward for a tough year after losing his international team coach.
“It was close but it is good, it is more than I expected coming here,” Peters said. “I have known I have had the ability, it sucks it has worked out this way but I have a lot to look forward to for the rest of the year and it is just one step.”
“It has been hard but it doesn’t mean we have been unable to find some success, silver linings and all.”
“It has been nerve-wracking so I thought if I am going to be there, I really might as well have some fun.”
Bronze medallist D’Almeida was optimistic about his semifinal defeat and took the positives out of qualifying Brazil an Olympic quota place, despite failing to advance on the silver medal he won in the same event two years ago in Yankton.
“I'm really happy I get to go to the Olympics,” he said. “It's really important that I just lost to the Olympic champion, and I'm happy about my level here.”
“Everyone in my family was in Brazil watching me here so that made me very excited.”
“I felt really good today and I just lost against Mete, who's the Olympic champion. This is the second time this year, the first one was at the beginning of the year so that's my level, I love it and that's why I work.”
Pangestu may have missed out on what would have been a first world championship medal for Indonesia but his Olympic qualification and performance over the week was something to behold.
The teenager knocked out reigning world champion Kim Woojin in the round of 16 but revealed he was affected by the difficult conditions in Berlin on finals day, losing 6-4 to Peters in the semifinal.
“I was very confident in the semifinal, but because of the weather and my cold hands it's kind of distracting for me.
“We practiced very hard and before going to Berlin, we did an acclimatisation in the Netherlands so we had some practice in this weather and so this is a key for success.
“I really wanted the ticket and I got it, this is the second time I'll be going to the Olympics so hopefully we can achieve more.“
“That's the spirit for our team and hopefully we can get more spirit from my ticket.”
