It won’t go in his record, but Mike effectively has two 600s in Taipei in 2023.
One from qualifying, one from the four perfect matches that followed.
“I feel like mentally very strong,” he said, ahead of a final against Prathamesh Jawkar. “I’m looking forward to it. Just keeping on going, doing the same thing. Because that’s been working.”
Casual and understated those words might be – but they are, in Schloesser speak, confident, too.
The nerves of the 2010s now seem long in the rear-view mirror, any struggle with his own nerves – a constant subject of his post-arena interviews prior to the pandemic – seemingly banished.
Doubt, the bane of the compound field, can strike at any time.
But with Mike in control, dialled in and firmly in his stride – as we’ve seen for the last two years in Taipei – he might be, literally, unstoppable.
And tomorrow in Taoyuan he has an opportunity to make history indoors, yet again.
A perfect 600 in qualifying, a perfect 150 in the first round, another in the second, followed by a clean quarterfinal and semifinal. One-hundred-and-twenty 10s. Fifteen arrows left to shoot.
Mister Perfect? Or Mister Legendary? Tomorrow we find out.
