Gomez Zuluaga Stuns Schloesser | Archery Weekly Jul 6-12

One point. That was the entire margin between a career-defining gold and another silver at the Madrid 2026 Archery World Cup, and it went the way almost nobody predicted. Colombia’s Pablo Gomez Zuluaga edged Mike Schloesser 148–147 in the compound men’s final on July 11, and it set the tone for a wild closing week (July 6–12) at the Complutense National Stadium. Here are the results that mattered from the last stage of the season.

Gomez Zuluaga Stuns Schloesser for Compound Gold

Schloesser rarely loses a compound final he leads. He opened with a 30 while Gomez Zuluaga’s first arrow drifted into the nine, and for most of the match the Dutchman looked like he was managing a lead rather than fighting for one. Then the ending turned. Over the last two ends Schloesser dropped two uncharacteristic nines — one low and left, another shaving the outside of the ten line — and Gomez Zuluaga answered with back-to-back 30s to steal it by a single point, 148–147.

“He’s an incredibly strong archer, so it’s rare for him to drop points like that,” Gomez Zuluaga said afterward. “You have to capitalize when it happens.” That is the whole game at this level: nobody outshoots Schloesser for 15 arrows, so you wait for the half-point opening and you punish it. The Colombian did exactly that for his first individual World Cup title.

The win also reshaped the compound rankings heading into the season finale. Beating the sport’s most decorated active compound archer in a gold match is the kind of result that follows a shooter into every future draw — opponents remember it, and so does the archer holding the medal. For Colombia, long a compound powerhouse on the women’s side through Sara Lopez, it is a signal that the men’s program has arrived too.

Madrid’s finals field ran 392 archers deep across recurve and compound.

Kim Woojin Reclaims the Top Spot in Qualification

The most reassuring sight for recurve fans was Kim Woojin back at the front of the pack. The Korean legend topped a 115-archer field — the biggest recurve men’s qualification of the entire 2026 season — with 695 points, the most tens (31) and joint-most Xs (20). It was his first top qualification of the year and his first at a World Cup since Shanghai 2025, where he went on to win the individual title.

Context matters here. Woojin had posted a fifth and a 24th in his previous two individual outings, results that would be fine for most archers but read as a slump for a man of his standard. Korea’s recurve team kept winning gold regardless, yet a season without an individual medal — something Woojin has never had — was starting to look possible. Topping qualification in Madrid was his way of shutting that conversation down. If you shoot a recurve, his form is worth studying; our recurve accuracy fundamentals break down the same anchor-and-release habits that keep his groups tight.

Kim Woojin led all recurve men in qualification with 31 tens.

Spain Turns the Home Crowd Into a Weapon

Playing at home can crush an archer or carry one. For Elia Canales and Andres Temiño Mediel it was clearly the second. Spain’s recurve mixed team ran a brutal gauntlet to reach the gold match: a 5–1 dismantling of Paris 2024 bronze medallists Casey Kaufhold and Brady Ellison, a 5–3 win over world number one Korea (Kim Woojin and Oh Yejin), and another 5–3 over Italy’s Matteo Borsani and Roberta Di Francesco in the semifinal.

“I really enjoyed the day. I didn’t feel much pressure to be at home — I was more focused on the joy of being here with my family,” Canales said. That relaxed framing is easier said than executed when the stadium is roaring for you, and beating both the USA and Korea in a single day is no fluke. This is the same pair that won Spain’s first-ever World Championships mixed team gold in Gwangju last September, so the pedigree is real.

Elia Canales and Andres Temino Mediel beat the USA and Korea on the same day.

Ella Gibson Closes the Season With Compound Gold

Ella Gibson had spent 2026 bowing out early despite strong seedings, so Madrid was overdue. The British compound archer reached her tenth career World Cup semifinal at 26, then went the distance for the win. Her quarterfinal against Chinese Taipei’s Chen Yi-Hsuan featured two perfect 30-point sets in gusting wind, and her round-of-eight shootoff win over nine-time World Cup champion Sara Lopez pushed her head-to-head record against Lopez to 4–1 since 2022.

“I took an early lead and then I did lose it,” Gibson admitted. “I shot some really good arrows at important moments, but I definitely wasn’t perfect today.” Honest, and telling — the archers who win these things are usually the ones who keep scoring while admitting they are rattled.

Ella Gibson beat nine-time champion Sara Lopez en route to compound gold.

India and Denmark Take the Team Honours

India’s compound women kept their remarkable season rolling. Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Chikitha Taniparthi and Prithika Pradeep edged South Korea 231–228 in a tense semifinal to book a place in the gold match against Colombia — another reminder that India’s compound program is now a fixture at the business end of every stage, not a surprise guest.

Vennam in particular has been the steady hand behind India’s compound surge, and pairing her with younger shooters like Taniparthi and Pradeep is how a federation turns one star into a dynasty. A three-point semifinal over Korea — a nation that historically owns tight team matches — is not luck; it is a program that has learned to shoot its best when the margin is thinnest.

In the compound mixed team, Denmark’s Mathias Fullerton and Tanja Gellenthien took gold, capping a strong Danish showing across the circuit. Between India’s women and Denmark’s mixed pairing, the compound team events in Madrid were a clinic in nerve control — the kind of shooting that starts with reliable gear and a clean release. If you are chasing that consistency, a dependable release aid is where most compound shooters find their first real accuracy jump.

A four-finger release aid for a cleaner, more repeatable compound shot. See it in the shop →

Madrid 2026 Archery World Cup: Recurve Highlights

If you missed the live broadcast, World Archery’s recurve highlight reels from the 2026 circuit are the fastest way to see how the top seeds actually shoot under pressure — the timing, the routine, the way they reset after a bad arrow.

Gear Corner: Building Toward Competition Form

Watching a World Cup makes people want to shoot, and that is a good instinct — just start with equipment matched to your body rather than to a pro’s draw weight. Most beginners overbow themselves trying to copy what they see on the broadcast, and it wrecks their form for months. A takedown recurve in a sensible poundage teaches the fundamentals every archer in Madrid started with.

A 60-inch takedown recurve kit — a competition-style rig to learn real form on. See it in the shop →

Draw weight is the decision people get wrong most often. If you are unsure where to start, our draw weight selection guide walks through matching poundage to your build and goals, and the beginner compound bow guide covers the same ground for the compound crowd. And once your form holds, nothing sharpens it like reps against a realistic target.

A 3D turkey target for judging distance and angles the way bowhunters actually shoot. See it in the shop →

Looking Ahead

Madrid closes the four-stage World Cup circuit, and attention now turns to the season finale in Saltillo, Mexico, where the top rankings from all four stages qualify for the World Cup Final. That is a smaller, sharper field — only the archers who banked enough points across Puebla, Shanghai, Antalya and Madrid — so expect the shooting to be even tighter than what we saw this week.

The bigger storyline underneath it all is the 2026 Asian Games year. Every result Korea, India and China posted in Madrid doubles as a selection argument back home, which is why nobody was coasting even at a “final” stage. For a fuller look at how the previous week set this up, see our June 29–July 5 roundup.

Madrid drew one of the loudest crowds of the 2026 circuit before the tour heads to Saltillo.

One point decided the headline result this week, and a handful of points separated most of the medals. That is the sport at full stretch — and a decent reason to go put a few more arrows downrange before next week’s Final. We will have the Saltillo recap for you when the dust settles.

Sources

1. World Archery — Kim Woojin returns to pole position at Madrid 2026 — recurve qualification results.
2. World Archery — Spain topples USA and Korea to reach home mixed team final — recurve mixed team semifinals.
3. World Archery — Ella Gibson reaches her tenth World Cup final four — compound women’s run.
4. World Archery — Final tickets for Saltillo on offer in Madrid — World Cup Final qualification.