On a course where eventual tournament winner Dave Cousins (USA) finished with only a 547 on the first day, some 10 points down on his average, it was sure to be a tough weekend for Blackrock Archers Geraint Thomas and Tapani Kalmaru at this years Cartel Classic in Mullenborn, Germany.

This was Tap's first IFAA shoot he put a in a solid performance on day one, finishing with a 526.  Talking to him after his last target he commented on how much harder the IFAA format was compared to the old FITA format where the smallest mistake would put you out of the spot on the smaller IFAA targets.

 

Geraint had more of a reason to be disappointed with his days shooting, coming in with a 518.  Geraint said "I am extremely disappointed with today's score.  I would have been happy with a 530.  I held my own on the more difficult target but dropped all my points on the flatter shots."

 

Despite all this, the pair were placed mid table for day two, narrowly missing out on being grouped together for the shorter International round.  Geraint piped Tap by just 2 points on the day, however this would have been a much bigger gap had Tap not put magnificent consecutive maximum scores on his last five targets!

 

After two days of shooting Tap finished in 21st place, 6 points ahead of team mate Geraint who finished in 23rd.