Ajay Scott secured his first international individual gold in dramatic fashion at the Swiss Open Lausanne 2025, winning the compound men’s final on Saturday night.
Facing Nicolas Girard, the reigning World Archery Champion outdoors, the 22-year-old Brit matched his opponent arrow for arrow – the pair finishing the five-end match tied on 148 points apiece (29, 30, 29, 30, 30).
Both shot 13 10s, averaging 9.81 points per arrow. As the target judge confirmed the result, they shared a smile and handshake, acknowledging each other’s excellence at the World Archery Excellence Centre – aptly named for the quality on display.
The shoot-off, however, was less precise. Scott’s arrow landed a nine just above the 10-ring, while Girard’s dropped low into the nine-ring, drawing gasps from the crowd. They were only the fifth and sixth nines across the 32 arrows shot in the final.
“I don’t know if it was expected or not, but I felt really good coming into it,” said Scott, the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games runner-up. “Practice at home was good. The qualifications felt really nice – I equalled my personal best – and then the head-to-heads just kept flowing, so I was really happy about that also.”
“The bow’s different, but nothing else really. I’m just going through my same old routine, and it’s paying off, I guess. I said to myself, ‘keep it going, keep strong, keepit pulling’.”
“I finished the shot [in the shoot-off] as well, which is what I’ve got in my head when I’m shooting.”
Scott became the first senior British archer to win in Lausanne since the event was added to the Indoor World Series three years ago – and this was also his first career victory over Girard.
The Frenchman, the current European Indoor Champion, had beaten Scott twice last season on the circuit – in Nimes (149-147) and at the GT Open (150-148) – and again outdoors at Madrid 2025, where he won their shoot-off in the searing Spanish heat.
