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Compound archery legend Mike Schloesser describes Hyderabad Biryani that he has discovered on his latest Indian visit as perfection.

Then there is that moment when he realised fellow archer, a Recurver, Gabriela Bayardo, was ‘the one’, which might tick the box as ‘perfect’. Or the moment when he realised the import of bringing a baby into this world, knowing keeping it happy and healthy amounted to perfection. And then, there was that 600/600 from 2015 — that now seems a very long time ago.

Shooting alongside India’s talismanic Dhiraj Bommadevara for Mighty Marathas in the archery Premier League (APL) final on Sunday as they defeated Kakatiya Knights, Schloesser, shot a terrific 80/80 once more. But memories of that world-record 600/600 that made him ‘Mr Perfect’ at age 21, are not about feeling perfect, but of his friend’s voice shooing away media persons to try to cocoon Schloesser’s concentration at Nimes, France.

This meant hitting the 10-ring over 60 arrows — and he has repeated the feat 3 times thereafter officially, twice in Taiwan and once at Macau. The APL final format is a team event, but India got its own tiny glimpse of what ‘perfect’ entails when he fuelled the Mighty Marathas to the APL title, shooting 80/80. Schloesser recalls the OG 600/600 actually came while he was still sleepy.

ALSO READ | How India’s archers mastered the wind for medals in Asian Games

One friend – trying to protect his peace — his enduring and slightly amusing memory of the world record.

“You are kinda in a flow. The routine is on auto-pilot. You are just doing your own thing,” he says of a mental state when thoughts of being in a zone, didn’t cross his mind. “Then ofcourse I started getting nervous. But there was never fear of missing a good arrow or 10,” he vividly recalls.

It had been a good launchpad for someone who started archery at 4, prompted by both archer parents in the Netherlands. “Yes I think it’s one of the great achievements. But I think we celebrated with a good lunch or something. I don’t remember, it’s been a long time,” he says.

Success at 21 kept him level-headed, and he didn’t quite think he should shift to Recurve — back then the only Olympic bow. “Ironically I started archery on Recurve for first 4-5 years. But shifted because I was more suited to Compound. But no, not really, never thought of switching to Recurve to win Olympics. I was in a happy place. And happy where I am,” Schloesser says.

Perhaps meeting his future wife, was the best thing archery offered as a spin-off. And now he’s a young father. “It’s good to be with someone who understands why I need to practice all the time. On not so good days it’s easy to bring archery to the dinner table. But we decided to try and leave it outside the house,” he says.

Fatherhood put some things in perspective. “In archery, we are constantly competing at higher level. But when you bring somebody into the world, keeping them happy and healthy becomes the biggest goal.”

Schloesser comes from windy Holland. “You just have to accept them. It’s second nature now, because you shoot in winds all the time. I learnt to cope. But not a big fan of winds,” he admits.

When he shot at Antalya for his World title in 2013, he remembers dire winds. “It was so bad we had to sit on our knees in between arrows. Properly unsafe. It was crazy but I walked out with a big smile, and was asked ‘Why are you so happy?’ I said ‘wind is my forte’.” You need to meet it, to beat it, he reckons.