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Mike Schloesser starts indoor season one off perfect 600 in Lausanne

1 November 2025

Lausanne, Switzerland

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Mike Schloesser shooting at the World Archery Centre.

Mike Schloesser re-entered the indoor season in fine form, topping the compound men’s competition at the Swiss Open Lausanne 2025.

This year’s field included all of the top four world-ranked archers, and it was world number two Schloesser who came out on top in Switzerland, scoring 599 – one point off the perfect 600 world record he set at 18 metres at Nimes 2015..

World number one and Vegas Shoot winner Mathias Fullerton shot 597 at the World Archery Excellence Centre to qualify second.

“I just came back from Nanjing last week; today was good. I surprised myself a little bit,” said Schloesser, known as Mister Perfect. “I shot very well and I’m very excited for the rest of the season. I’m trying to do the same thing.”

“Of course, preparations are a little different. I had a baby a couple of months ago, so it’s not where I want it to be at yet. So far, I’ve tried to keep things as similar as possible because the last couple of years have been very fruitful for me.”

Following his bronze medal at the Nanjing 2025 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final, Schloesser said the second half of his outdoor season had “run out of luck,” but the Dutchman looks sharp and ready indoors in Lausanne.

He won last year’s Swiss Open and went on to collect gold medals at the GT Open, Taipei Open and Great Chicago Open to complete a stellar indoor campaign.

Yesterday’s performance, at the first competition of this season’s indoor circuit, shows that – at least with bow in hand – parenthood isn’t slowing him down.

Roberta Di Francesco competing in Lausanne.

Practice, however, has been tougher in recent months.

“Five months ago, my baby girl was born, and practice has been a bit rougher,” he said. “Before, the only thing I needed to take care of was my daily schedule. Now, with a baby, it’s more difficult to plan my training.”

The Chengdu 2025 World Games Champion’s wife, Gaby Schloesser, also competed in the recurve women’s even in Lausanne, finishing eighth with 575 points.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t reigning Indoor World Series Champion Casey Kaufhold who topped qualification in that category but Roberta Di Francesco.

The Italian scored 594 – just one 10 away from equalling Ryoo Sujung’s world record of 595 – to finish seven points ahead of Kaufhold (587).

Di Francesco, who has previously medalled only in field archery – winning gold at the Lac La Biche 2024 World Archery Field Championships and bronze in Chengdu – looks set to challenge for her first major individual result in target archery.

Indoors, in particular, is a new environment for her. Lausanne marks just her second appearance on the Indoor World Series, following her debut in Nimes earlier this year.

“I was shooting at 18 metres; it wasn’t going that bad,” revealed the Antalya 2025 team silver medallist. “I was like, if I don’t start now, then I won't likely start, because I like 70 metres more. But I thought, ‘it’s near Italy, even by car, so why not?’”

Competition continues today in Lausanne, with recurve and compound eliminations this afternoon and the individual finals this evening. You can watch the finals live on archery+.