Ajay Scott pips World champion -

Briton Ajay Scott secured his first international individual gold in the most thrilling circumstances at the Swiss Open Lausanne 2025 compound men final.

Against Nicolas Girard, the Brit mirrored every single set from the 2025 World outdoors champion, as they both ended the five set match 29, 30, 29, 30, 30 for a 148-148 tie.

With 13 10s a piece, averaging an arrow of 9.81, they gave a wry smile and handshake once the target judge announced the result, acknowledging each other’s excellence at the World Archery Excellence Centre to match the name of their surroundings.

The shoot-off proved to be not their sharpest efforts however, as Scott landed a nine just above the 10-ring and Girard a well below nine as gasps escaped the mouths of those in attendance.

They were just the fifth and sixth nines of the 32 arrows shot that evening.

“I don’t know if it was expected or not but I felt really good coming into it,” said the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games runner-up Scott. “Practise at home was good. The qualifications felt really nice, I equaled my personal best and then the head-to-heads just kept flowing so I was really happy about that also.”

“The bow’s different but nothing else really. I’m just going through my same old routine and it’s paying off I guess. I said to myself ‘keep it going, keep strong, keep it pulling’.”

“I finished the shot [in the shoot-off] as well which is what I’ve got in my head when I’m shooting.”

As well as the first British archer from any senior category to have won Lausanne since it was incorporated into the Indoor World Series three years ago, last night marked the only time Scott has gotten the better of Girard.

The current European Indoor champion beat Scott twice last year on the circuit in Nimes [147-149] and then GT Open [148-150] before defeating him outdoors at the Madrid 2025 World Cup in July.

The latter was also a shoot-off but France’s Girard came out on top in the dry, searing Spanish heat. The windless, air conditioned environment on the first stop on the Indoor World Series however proved to be in the favour of Scott this time.

After Gwangju, Scott said in an Instagram post how he wanted to “hit the ground running” in the indoors season and now he’s done just that.

“…you’ve got the added pressure of the crowd, trying to keep the timing, stuff like that, replied the Shanghai 2025 mixed team gold medallist on why the final was the most difficult match of the tournament. “The shoot-off arrow was the most difficult one because you’re trying to make it as perfect as you can. Some over-aiming can happen but I felt like I kept it good even though maybe it wasn’t the best shoot-off.”

Scott’s semifinal was also a memorable moment as he recorded his first indoors 150 versus Marco Morello.

The Italian ended up as the competition’s bronze medallist overcoming compatriot Marco Bruno 149-147, a staggering achievement considering it’s his debut entry as a compound men archer following years in recurve.

It wasn’t even two months ago that he won silver in the Walbrzych-Ksiaz 2025 European Field Championships as a recurver.

“I made the change because I would like to try something new and there were some years I shot both only in Italy because in internationals I shot recurve but in my club I shot both,” he explained. “I was third in my compound team and when I see that I like shooting compound, then I slowly made the change.”