Matias Grande was on the Prithviraaj Yodhas team who finished as very close runners-up. “For me it was super exciting. I have never been so excited like watching a match with a team because I don’t know – it feels different, you need how much you need to win or how much you can relax.
“I thought, like with less time, maybe you have a little bit less scores, but it’s like more interesting because time is getting over, then you need to shoot, then you have like to shoot in five seconds,” he said.
“The final was… the best part of the competition and for me I think they can put even more crazy things. I mean, we are pro archers. We are used to pressure!”
Finally, Mike Schloesser was a big part of the Mighty Marathas team, and went to Delhi along with his wife Gaby and their daughter Luna. ”So it was something unique, something definitely new. I had a lot of fun shooting my bow. Probably fun as I’ve shot in a long while, so I’m definitely already missing it. I really hope that it comes off the ground and we’re going to have more additions in the upcoming years. so I look forward to more,” said the Dutchman.
“The people are crazy in a good sense, you know, like just everything. Like we kind of got there as a team, like the first day I didn’t even know the people and at the end they were like really good friends.”
“You know, like you just get like a bond with seven random people and you just need to make it work and that’s something new as well. Because normally you shoot for your own country so you speak the same language to do the same things but now you’re at like seven random people that you just need to connect with and the quicker you did the better.”
“The 15 seconds shot clock? It was tight it was something definitely like they need to work on like you cannot just do make a shot like you normally do. I think I made it interesting if you constantly need to shoot at 15 seconds I think it would be very bad because I think you’re gonna lose a lot of precision because you’re just gonna like go for speed and that’s something that you don’t want to have as a professional athlete of course. But like for once in a in a while it’s definitely good. Would I like it in every tournament? Definitely not!”
With at least one more instalment planned next year – and possibly some more surprises in store rules-wise – it could become a huge part of archery’s story to come. Watch this space.
With thanks to Iwan Blakeway
