Contact Us

Turkey’s Mete Gazoz wins gold in 2018 Archery World Cup

Compiled from wire services SPORTS
Published July 23,2018
Subscribe

Turkish archer Mete Gazoz on Sunday won the gold medal in the 2018 Archery World Cup in Berlin, Germany.

On the last day of the championship, the 19-year-old recurve archer won the gold in the recurve men's gold medal match during stage four of the competition.

Gazoz, ranked No. 12 in the world, won the final match against his South Korean opponent Lee Woo Seok, ranked No. 2, in a dramatic tie-break following a 5-5 draw.

Gazoz won the shoot-off after putting down a 10, barely four or five shaft widths from dead center of the target while his opponent Lee's arrow went wide left in the nine.

"It was an important match and a hard competition. It was clear from the start that it would be a hard and difficult match," Gazoz told the World Archery Federation.

"I am really happy. This is a dream come true. I am now one of the eight or nine best in the world and I have an opportunity with the final happening in my country," he said.

Both Gazoz and Lee will take the field at the 2018 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final to be held in Samsun, Turkey.

"Mete Gazoz has achieved a great success. Our goal is 2020 Tokyo Olympics. We believe that Turkey will win its first archery Olympic medal in Tokyo," Turkey Archery Federation head Abdullah Topaloğlu told Anadolu Agency.

Youth and Sports Minister Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoğlu also congratulated the young archer on Monday.

"Our athlete's continuous success in international competitions makes us very happy on the road to 2020 Tokyo Olympics," he said, thanking everyone involved with the achievement.

Turkey completed the fourth leg of the World Cup competitions with one gold and two bronze medals.

Stage four began July 16 and ended on Sunday in Berlin.

The Archery World Cup, organized by the World Archery Federation, is held each year in four stages in four different countries. The best eight archers in each category advance to a fifth stage, the Archery World Cup Final.

The first three stages were held in Shanghai, China; Antalya, Turkey; and Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.