With 15,000 Euro prize money at stake, 800 entrants and 50 targets, this year's Berlin Open was a highlight for many archers on the 2019 calendar.
This exciting and relatively new archery event, held 13 - 15 December at Berlin's Horst-Korber sports centre, is anticipated to become a prominent and popular fixture, and with so much money at stake, competitors at least had the hope of a very happy Christmas!
At qualification stage on the Friday, Germany had an impressive line-up for the men's and women's recurve events with a scattering of Polish, Swiss, Czech, Hungarian, Lithuanian and Mongolian contestants among them.
For compound, the international competitors were more widespread, hailing from Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, USA and Russia. Great Britain's Simon Scott took gold in the Compound Men's category, convincingly beating Lars Klinger from Germany 144 to 139 and beating fellow Brit Jacek Pedziwiatr in the 1/8 round. Simon said: "Words simply can't explain how I feel right now. I won the Berlin Open!"
In the Compound Women's event, Iulia Petra of Archery GB made it to the quarter finals narrowly missing out to Yasemin Topkarci from Turkey in a one arrow shoot off. Susan Corless of Northampton Archery Club also finished in the top ten.
While Carmel Bassett of Rayleigh Town Archery Club competed in the visually impaired category. Phoebe Pine beat team mate Jessica Stretton in the Compound Para Open category before narrowly missing out by one point in the semi-final to Marcel Pavlik from Slovakia (147 - 148). Pavlik then went on to beat GB's Nathan MacQueen in the gold medal match (143 - 140). Phoebe missed out on the bronze by one point to David Drahoninsky in the bronze medal match.
Following the final qualifying round, competitors were treated to a celebratory evening on the Saturday, a chance to network, relax and enjoy famed German hospitality with food and drink in a laid-back atmosphere.
Berlin Open's finalists are listed as follows:
Recurve men winner: Germany's Heiko Keib - 567 qualified; 7 final
Recurve women winner: Netherlands' Claire van Dijck - 556 qualified; 6 final
Compound men winner: Great Britain's Simon Scott - 584 qualified; 144 final
Compound women winner: Italy's Cinzia Ferrari - 575 qualified; 140 final
Check here for further results and competition information.
