Lajos Kassai

Lajos Kassai in 2009

Lajos Kassai (born 16 September 1960), Hungarian bowyer, creator of the modern sport of horse archery, owner of the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary

Bowyering

Lajos Kassai originally qualified as a mechanic. He engaged in bowyering as a sideline in the mid 1980s, and reconstructed the Hungarian composite bow from the time of the Hungarian Conquest. Eventually this became his profession, and he became the first in the world to mass-produce this bow. He makes all kind of traditional bows, including Scythian, Magyar, Hun (asymmetric type), Avar, Mongolian and laminated bows. He produces his masterpieces in the power range from 25# to 110#, and also children's versions in the 25# to 40# power range. Although adult men tend to use bows with 40# to 50# power, the stronger variants are also popular.

Horse archery

Hungarian horse archery range
Ölyv (red) and Farkas II. (black) bows

Kassai created the competitive rule system of horse archery in the late 1980s, and started to propagate this new sport, first in Hungary, and from the 1990s in the rest of Europe, the United States and Canada. He made himself familiar with Zen-archery in Kamakura, Japan, and travelled to Shao-lin in China to study.

He summarized his experiences in his book "Horse archery", which since its issue has been translated into German, English and Russian.[2][3]

He founded the center of Hungarian horse archery, Kassai-valley, near Kaposmérő.[4] Horse archery centers based on the Kassai-school are currently operating in fourteen countries, and organize world cups regularly.

In 2011, the University of Physical Education accepted the education practice developed by Kassai and began horse archery training. Hungary is the first country in the world where one can get a teaching diploma in horse archery.

His life and work was dramatized by Géza Kaszás in the film A lovasíjász (The horse archer), which premiered in January 2016.[5]

Achievements

To this day, he has won every single horse archery competition he entered. He set four Guinness world records: in 1998, by constantly riding on relay horses during a 12 hours competition, he rode through the 90 meter long horse archery range 286 times, and fired more than 1000 aimed shots. In 2002, on a record run that lasted from 6 AM to 6 PM, he fired over 3000 shots collecting 7126.05 points in 323 rides, greatly surpassing his previous record. On 10 June 2006, he again surpassed his two previous 12-hour world records by competing in horse archery for 24 hours continuously. From Saturday 7 AM until Sunday 7 AM he rode 661 times firing 5412 shots and collecting 15,596.43 points overall, for an average of 212.35 points per ride.

He set his last record with his disciplies in the Budapest Sports Arena on 5 December 2009. He shot 12 thrown up discs with 30 cm diameter under 17.80 seconds from the back of a racing horse.

Awards, merits

Family

Kassai is married and has one daughter.

References

  1. ↑ Dr. András Krisztina – A ló- és lovassport mint kitörési pont?, mstt.hu
  2. ↑ Lajos Kassai : Lovasíjászat, Dee-Sign Kiadó, Budapest, 2001, 2002, 2003 ISBN 9638613416, Püski Kiadó, 2006 ISBN 9789633021682.
  3. ↑ Summary of the book
  4. ↑ A Kassai-völgy.
  5. ↑ Kassai Lajos: A Lovasíjász egy motivációs film.

See also

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