Florian Unruh produced one of his career-best performances to win the recurve men’s individual gold, as the first Hyundai Archery World Cup of the year concluded in Central Florida 2025.
This victory marks Unruh’s first individual stage win since Antalya 2014.
An Olympic mixed team silver medallist from Paris 2024, the German archer shot five perfect scores of 30 points and three ends of 29 throughout the day. He dropped only two points against eventual bronze medallist Dhiraj Bommadevara and three versus reigning World and European Champion Mete Gazoz, including one in the final set.
“To beat an archer like Gazoz, you need to hit the 10-ring as many times as you can,” shared Unruh, who seemed the calmest of all in this weekend’s action. “I’ve shot good matches in the past, but not good enough to reach the semifinals. Now finally I’ve done it, so I’m pretty happy.”
Unruh, now in his 12th season on archery’s premier international circuit, attributed his success to his ability to adapt to the windy conditions at Lake Myrtle Sports Park.
“I think I got to grip with the wind pretty early, and even in official practice, my aiming off was pretty good,” he explained. “Then it progressed even further for the next days, and also the wind was good for me this week.”
Sunday’s result also spelt the end for Unruh’s decade-long individual World Cup stage drought, his last victory being in 2014 in Antalya, where he beat Ku Bonchan.
The 31-year-old German archer has also found success in the mixed team event with partner Michelle Kroppen, securing silver at the Olympics and gold at the European Championships on home soil last year. The pair added another medal together in the mixed team event with bronze earlier this Sunday.
