Tom Boatwright - World Champion

In 2010 Tom Boatwright became the Top Bow Indoor World Champion shooting his New Breed Cyborg!

Tom contacted New Breed Archery in late 2009 looking for a new bow to shoot in preparation for the 2010 Top Bow Indoor World Championship qualifiers. Tom explained that he had shot many brands and models of bows over the years and was searching for the one that would help him get to the next level. Tom had made it deep into the Buckmasters Top Bow Indoor World Championship several times in previous years, but always seemed to finish just shy of the Championship Title, placing second or third. Tom explained to New Breed he was really practicing hard and felt he was doing everything spot-on and was convinced 2010 would be his year, but felt he just needed that little extra edge to get him to the win.

Tom is a local here in New Breed Territory (Alabama) so he was not a stranger to New Breed’s President, Kyle Null. It was well known that Tom had to make modifications to his previous equipment to get the best performance out of it to meet his remarkable shooting skills. As Kyle and Tom discussed the bow that would best fit Tom’s wants and needs it was quickly decided that the New Breed Cyborg was the bow that would put Tom in the winner’s circle. Kyle was more than happy to have Tom shoot the New Breed Cyborg under one condition that Tom had to leave the bow “as is”, a factory production Cyborg bow with no modifications or extra tweaking to the bow, because Kyle knew the time, effort, and energy that was put into to the bow to make it the perfect all around target bow. Tom agreed to give the production Cyborg a try but explained that he would have to give it a good breaking in before he would consider calling it his number one bow.

After only having the bow just a couple of weeks, Tom decided to use the Cyborg to shoot it in the 2010 Aflac Games. He thought this would be a great trial run for the up and coming Buckmaster’s Top Bow Indoor World Championship event. Tom had a strong showing entire weekend and entered into the final rounds of the Aflac Games known as the “Earn a Buck” in second place, only one point behind the leader. The “Earn-A-Buck” is a head to head speed challenge in which the shooters have to hit three approximately four inch discs on a Field Logic Block target at thirty yards to earn the right to shoot at the disc on the Glendale Buck. In a tight race Tom hit his fourth disc on the buck just before the other shooter was able release his final arrow. Tom's 70 to 61 victory gave him the gold medal at the 2010 AFLAC Outdoor Games Archery Challenge.

Tom Reported back into Kyle that after shooting the Aflac Games he would be taking the bow to the Buckmaster Championship. Tom explained he had tried everything to find something he wanted to change or modify with the Cyborg, but after taking the Aflac win and shooting several hours a day in preparation for the Buckmasters, he just couldn’t find anything to change or that needed modifying. Tom explains when he shot the Cyborg it was almost as if he was “Shooting like a Machine!”

Boatwright shot a perfect round in the Buckmaster finals, claiming the 2010 Top Bow Indoor World Champion title at the 17th Buckmasters Expo in Montgomery, Ala., Aug. 20-23.

Tom’s words:
“This is by far the most difficult tournament on your nerves that you could ever shoot in,” Boatwright said. “The first thing I do when I step on the platform is try to calm my nerves. When you first get up there, it’s like looking at a TV channel with no station. Everything is just fuzzy. I look over the range and try to calm my nerves until I can see a few targets. Until you look through your sights at this range, you can’t imagine what it’s like.”

“This is unexplainable,” he said. “People say shooting the Buckmasters gives you the same feeling of when a big 8-point buck comes up and your insides turn over. Winning this tournament is that times a thousand. I probably won’t sleep for a month, I’m so excited right now.”

How close was it? The championship came down to the final shot — aptly named the “Last Chance Target.” Fellow Alabamian Skipper Booth from Northport, needed a bull’s-eye (the center Red circle) to match Boatwright’s perfect score of 215. Booth’s arrow hit in the yellow, putting him 10 points short , making Tom Boatwright the 2010 Top Bow Indoor World Champion!

Shortly after the win Tom explained to Kyle that the bow preformed flawlessly and it seemed as if he couldn’t miss. Tom is still competing and shooting a his New Breed Cyborg and has several other titles under his belt now, including The 2011 Total Outdoor Challenge Champion.