World Champ Banned 3 Years | Archery Weekly Jun 29–Jul 5

A world compound champion losing three years of her career to a positive steroid test is not the headline most archery weeks deliver. This one did. Between that ruling, a fresh wave of flagship-bow reviews, and a marquee pro switching camps, the stretch from June 29 to July 5 kept the sport busy even without a major tournament on the calendar. Here is the archery news that mattered, and what it means for how you shoot and what you buy.

The Week’s Biggest Archery News: Bernal’s Doping Ban

Mexican compound archer Mariana Bernal accepted a three-year suspension after testing positive for nandrolone, an anabolic steroid banned at all times under the WADA list. The sample was collected out of competition on September 29, 2025, and her ban runs from December 22, 2025, through December 21, 2028 — which sidelines her past the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The number that raised eyebrows was the reduction. Bernal admitted the violation early and did not contest it, which knocked a standard four-year sanction down to three. She keeps the women’s compound team world title she won in South Korea, because that medal was earned three weeks before the sample date, but every individual result from September 29 onward — including her run at the 2025 World Cup Final — is wiped. It is a rare doping case in a sport most fans think of as pure skill and nerves, and the honest takeaway is that compound archery, with its emphasis on holding weight and back tension over a long season, is not immune to the temptation. Nandrolone builds muscle and speeds recovery — useful when you are drawing 60 pounds hundreds of times a week across a nine-month circuit. That does not excuse it, but it explains why the International Testing Agency now runs out-of-competition controls in a sport that once flew under the anti-doping radar. World Archery’s swift, public handling of it is the encouraging part, and the early-admission reduction sends a clear message to anyone weighing whether to fight a positive test. You can read the full ruling on World Archery’s Clean Sport page.

PSE Sicario Carbon: The Fastest Carbon Bow PSE Has Built

If you shoot compound and spend any time on YouTube, the Sicario has been unavoidable this month. PSE is calling it the fastest carbon bow the company has ever made, and the reviews rolling out over the past week back the marketing up with numbers. The bow sits on a 33-inch carbon platform, carries a short 5.25-inch brace height, and tips the scale at just 3.9 pounds bare.

The engine is the new FDS (Force Distribution System) cam. By recessing the cable post and widening the cam bearings, PSE balanced the load across the axle to cut cam lean and hand torque — the two things that usually make a speed bow feel like a wrestling match. Testers clocked it as high as 357 fps on the IBO spec, and more telling, one field test recorded 305 fps at a real hunting setup of 60 pounds and a 389-grain arrow, roughly 20 fps clear of the next-fastest bow in that group. A short brace height still demands clean form, so if you are chasing every last frame per second, understanding how arrow weight and FOC shift downrange energy matters more on this bow than on a forgiving 7-inch-brace target rig.

A fast bow lives or dies on its release. If you are moving to something this aggressive, a crisp, adjustable trigger keeps the speed from turning into a flinch.

Adjustable four-finger metal release aid — available at Archery Supplier

New 2026 Bows Are Still Landing After the ATA Show

The Sicario is one release in a genuinely deep 2026 class. The ATA Show going public this year turned the annual bow reveal into a season-long conversation, and the comparison buyers keep searching is the PSE Sicario against the Mathews ARC 30 and ARC 34, which run the new SWX-2 cam. Mathews leans toward a smoother, quieter draw with a longer brace; PSE swings for outright speed. Neither is wrong. The right pick depends on whether you value a dead-calm hold in a treestand or the flattest possible trajectory across a canyon.

Here is the unglamorous truth most launch hype skips: the bow is maybe half the accuracy equation. A flagship riser paired with a worn-out rest and a whippy stabilizer will still throw fliers. If you are still weighing the two platforms, our breakdown of recurve versus compound bows is a useful gut check before you commit to a full compound setup and its accessory bill.

Tim Gillingham Rejoins Team Bowtech

Bowtech announced the return of Tim “The Hammer” Gillingham to its pro staff, and the results came fast. Since coming back, Gillingham took gold at the USAT SoCal Showdown in Chula Vista — his third USAT gold in as many tournaments — and followed with a third-place finish in Senior Known Pro at the ASA Pro/Am in Metropolis, Illinois. “I’ve won more consistently with Bowtech bows than any other,” he said after the win.

Pro-staff moves can read like inside baseball, but they carry a signal for buyers. When a shooter of Gillingham’s pedigree ties his scores to a specific cam system and bow line, brand-loyal compound archers pay attention, and so does Bowtech’s product roadmap — he is now involved in evaluating what the company builds next. Gillingham built his reputation on 3D and known-distance target work, disciplines where a forgiving, repeatable bow beats a raw speed number, so his return hints at where Bowtech wants to compete. For target and 3D shooters shopping this summer, that is worth filing away: the bow a Senior Known Pro keeps winning with is usually tuned for consistency, not bragging-rights velocity. The full announcement is on The Outdoor Wire.

Tethrd’s Phantom XP Puts Saddle Hunting on Notice

Saddle hunting keeps eating into the treestand market, and Tethrd’s new Phantom XP is built to accelerate that. It is essentially a greatest-hits build: the expandable pleated panel from the Ultralock, the lay-flat loops and bridge concept from the Carnivore 2P, all folded into the low-profile Phantom fit. The pleated panel adds up to 3.5 inches of extra material, held by a patent-pending Lace Lock Tensioner, so one saddle covers a wide range of body sizes.

The updated Micro Quad Lock Bridge sits closer to the hips and recovers about three inches of workable bridge line, which matters more than it sounds when you are twisting for a shot off the weak side. At 29 ounces in Regular and a $274 price, it lands in late July, per Bowhunting.com’s 2026 saddle roundup. Whatever platform you hunt from, a balanced front bar quiets the shot and steadies the pin — the kind of upgrade that pays off long after the new-gear buzz fades.

Carbon fiber bow stabilizer with vibration dampers — available at Archery Supplier

Looking Ahead: Madrid, Yankton, and a Loaded July

The competition drought ends fast. The fourth and final stage of the 2026 Hyundai Archery World Cup runs July 7–12 in Madrid, with 392 archers from 51 countries at Vallehermoso and Complutense stadiums. Four tickets to the Saltillo World Cup Final are still open, and only stage winners plus four host-nation Mexican invites will claim them. Spain’s Andres Temiño headlines the home recurve squad. Track the field on the World Archery preview.

Then the action crosses the Atlantic. Yankton, South Dakota hosts back-to-back field events at the NFAA Easton center: the NFAA Outdoor National Field Championships on July 24–26, immediately followed by the IFAA World Field Championships from July 25 through August 1. Together they stack roughly eight straight days of world-class field archery — Field, Hunter, and Animal rounds across uneven terrain, where judging distance and holding through a slope separates the podium from the pack.

Field archery rewards a rock-steady setup, because unmarked yardage and awkward stances punish anything loose on the riser. A drop-away rest that clears the arrow cleanly on every angle is the difference between a tight group and a mystery flier on a downhill target.

Micro-adjust drop-away arrow rest — available at Archery Supplier

Last week the story was USA sweeping team gold at the Pan American Championships. This week it was a doping ban and a speed war between carbon flagships. Check back next Monday for the Madrid medal count — and if the Sicario hype has you rethinking your setup, spend the money on the release, rest, and arrows before the riser. That is where accuracy actually comes from.

Sources

1. World Archery — Mariana Bernal accepts three-year anti-doping sanction
2. Archery Business — 2026 PSE Sicario Carbon: specs and 357 fps speed test
3. The Outdoor Wire — Tim Gillingham returns to Bowtech Archery
4. Bowhunting.com — New saddles and platforms for 2026, including the Tethrd Phantom XP
5. World Archery — Final Saltillo tickets on offer at Madrid World Cup stage 4
6. NFAA — 2026 outdoor archery season set to take over Yankton