SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - The Easton Salt Lake Archery Center set a perfect backdrop for the 2018 Para World Ranking Event. With USA taking on archers from Brazil, Canada and Singapore, competition was intense.
In qualification, Kevin Mather scored 312 and then smashed a 325 in the second half for a 637 to take the top seed.
"I woke up this morning and things were different than the've been the last two days of practice," commented Mather. "We went from sunny, calm skies to overcast and breezy. It was challenging conditions, but this was a personal best in competition for sure, and near a personal best for what I've shot in practice, so with the wind we had today and what was going on with the elements, I'm more than happy with how I performed and I'm still excited to get right back to work. That's all I know how to do, so a 637 just fuels me to look for a 647, and a 657 and so on until we shoot a perfect round, that's the goal, so I'm stoked. Nothing but excited and we'll see how it goes shooting eliminations tomorrow."
Qualifying behind Mather were Eric Bennett and Timothy Palumbo with 623 and 618.
USA archers also swept the compound open men's qualification round with Andre Shelby locking up the top spot with a 690, just ahead of Matt Stutzman and Ben Thompson's 688 and 682.
Lori Dupree took the second seed for the recurve open women with a 265 behind Brazil's Lorenzi Dergovics' 559. Lia Coryell also seeded second for the W1 category with a 593. Brazil's Luiz Jaime Gomes Perilo took the top seed with a 609 and Brazil's Santana Franco just beat out USA's Jerry Shields for the third spot - both scored 562s.
Teresa Wallace was third for the compound open women, scoring a 640. Singapore's Alim took the top spot with a 681.
Competition continues this afternoon with fun team and mixed team rounds and will pick up again tomorrow morning with elimination matches. Complete results from the competition are available here. Follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitterand Instagram for more from the event.
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