Turkish archer Mete Gazoz on Sunday bagged a gold medal at the Berlin 2023 Hyundai World Archery Championships.
Gazoz beat Canadian Eric Peters 6-4 in the recurve men’s final.
Gazoz had defeated Chile’s Ricardo Soto 6-2 in the quarterfinals and Brazil’s Marcus D’Almeida 7-3 in the semifinals.
D’Almeida clinched a bronze medal by beating Indonesian Arif Pangestu.
Gazoz had also bagged a gold medal in men’s individual archery at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as it was a Turkish first in archery, a sport where fierce concentration is the watchword and South Koreans usually monopolize the titles.
The 24-year-old spoke to Reuters after Tokyo Games, saying: “Imagine you’re in the Olympic final, drawing your bow and some dude behind you is grinning from ear to ear. I owe 80% of this medal to the smile.”
“At this level, there is virtually no difference between archers in terms of technical abilities,” he explained. “It all comes down to mental durability and superiority.
“All athletes employ different tactics. Some like to shout, some like to wait until the end of the allowed time and keep their rival on the edge.