Türkiye Sweeps Antalya Compound Titles | Archery Weekly May 18-24, 2026

The European outdoor season hit its emotional peak this week as Antalya played host to the continent’s championship final — and the home crowd got everything it wanted from the compound discipline. Türkiye walked away with both individual titles for the first time in modern memory, Germany answered in recurve with a stunning team sweep, and Slovakia, the Netherlands, and Germany combined to put three new world record marks on the board. Across the Atlantic, USA Archery’s outdoor calendar opened in Salt Lake City, and the Pan-American Championships in Santiago started rewriting the medal table for South America. Here is everything you need to know from May 18 to May 24, 2026.

Türkiye Sweeps Both Compound Individual Titles at Antalya 2026

The 29th edition of the European Outdoor Championships drew 307 archers from 41 countries to the Turkish Archery Federation field in Antalya, and the host nation made sure the headlines stayed local. On Saturday, May 23, twenty-one-year-old Hazal Burun became the first Turkish woman in history to win European compound gold, defeating Denmark’s Tanja Gellenthien in the final. Great Britain’s Ella Gibson took bronze after a clean win over Sofie Louise Dam Marcussen.

“Becoming European Champion here in Antalya, that was part of my dream,” Burun said after the medal ceremony. “I set it as my goal, worked towards it, and achieved it.”

The men’s final delivered the moment of the week. Emircan Haney and Poland’s Przemysław Konecki finished their five-end match locked at 147-all, sending the title to a one-arrow shoot-off. Haney, looking visibly nervous on the line, dropped a clean ten. Konecki could only manage a nine, and the home crowd erupted as Haney became the first Turkish man to win a continental compound title since Yakup Yıldız in 2021. Mike Schloesser of the Netherlands closed his championship with bronze, again at the expense of Germany’s young Simon Moritz.

The team events told a more international story. France took men’s compound gold ahead of Slovenia and Türkiye, the Netherlands won the women’s compound team final over Italy with Estonia in bronze, and the Dutch added the mixed team title against Great Britain — Denmark rounding out that podium. Full bracket data is available at World Archery.

Bakker Breaks Through for First Major as Germany Owns Recurve Team Day

The recurve final session on Sunday belonged to two stories. The first was 25-year-old Willem Bakker, who became the new men’s European recurve champion after a 6-2 win over Italian veteran Mauro Nespoli. It was Bakker’s first major target title, and his reaction afterward captured it perfectly: “It was amazing. It felt unreal. I was like ‘oh, I hope I get it’ when I walked on.” Türkiye’s Mete Gazoz took bronze.

The women’s title went to Nurinisso Makhmudova, competing as an AIN, who completed a rare indoor-outdoor double by adding the European outdoor championship to the indoor crown she lifted in February. Spain’s Elia Canales finished with silver — her third silver at a major European final — and Türkiye’s Elif Gökkır took bronze.

The recurve team finals were the day’s biggest geopolitical surprise. Germany went two-for-two, defeating Belarus in the women’s gold medal match and Spain in the men’s gold medal match. The German women — Katharina Bauer, Charline Schwarz, and Elisa Tartler — were the same trio that captured bronze in Essen two years ago and have now stepped up onto the top step together.

“Our team especially works really hard for every tournament,” Bauer said. “I think we also have really good synergy within our team.”

Türkiye picked up the mixed team title to keep one more piece of hardware at home. With Istanbul 2027 qualification spots on the line all week, several federations also walked away with the more important reward of locked-in roster invitations for next year’s worlds.

Three World Records Fall in Compound

The compound discipline produced a frankly absurd amount of record paper this week.

The earliest mark came from Slovakia. On Tuesday, May 20, Jozef Bosansky and Petra Kočútová shot a combined 1353 over the 50+ mixed team format in Antalya, breaking the previous mark of 1342 set by Choi Na Mi and Jang Ho Sik of South Korea at the 2023 World Para Championships in Pilsen. “I wouldn’t have believed it would happen again,” Bosansky said. “With Petra, we broke the world record in the 50+ category.”

One day later, on Wednesday, May 21, World Archery ratified Martine Stas-Couwenberg’s compound women 50+ 144-arrow world record of 1357, set earlier in the month in Minderhout, Belgium. The Dutch archer beat the previous mark of 1350, held since August 2019 by Linda Klosterman of the USA. Stas-Couwenberg confessed she had no idea she was sitting on a world record at the time — only the national one. “It wasn’t until more than a week later that I discovered it was also a new world record,” she said. “A very fun and unexpected bonus — one I’m secretly quite proud of.”

The third record — and possibly the most jaw-dropping of the trio — came from 17-year-old Simon Moritz of Germany. Shooting at a national competition in München-Garching on May 16, Moritz fired a perfect 150 with 11 X-ring tens through 15 arrows, breaking a U21 men’s compound world best (150, 10X) that had stood since David Houser set it in July 2014. World Archery confirmed the mark on May 22. Moritz then carried that form into Antalya and finished fourth in the senior men’s individual event the following weekend — losing the bronze match to Mike Schloesser, but signaling a new arrival in the senior compound ranks.

Salt Lake Summit Opens USAT Outdoor Series

While Europe took the spotlight, USA Archery’s senior, para, and 50+ archers reported to the Easton Archery Center in Salt Lake City for the 2026 Easton Foundations Salt Lake Summit, the second stop on the USAT Qualifier Series. Competition ran from May 22 through May 24 across recurve, compound, para, barebow, and fixed-pin divisions, with the U15, U18, and U21 fields scheduled for the following weekend.

The Summit is one of the rare U.S. events where senior recurve, compound, and barebow division winners automatically punch a ticket to the USAT Series Final — meaning every points position taken in Salt Lake reshapes the back end of the qualification picture for the rest of the outdoor season. With World Cup commitments overlapping with the European Championships, the senior field in Utah skewed toward the next generation of U.S. team hopefuls, which is exactly the dynamic the Salt Lake Summit was designed to create. Full division standings will appear on the USA Archery results page.

Santiago 2026 Crowns Pan-American Champions

South America also had a continental moment. The 2026 Pan American Championships in Santiago, Chile, wrapped up its medal program on May 23 with home favorite Andrés Aguilar taking his first continental individual medal in front of a Chilean crowd. Brazil’s Graziela Paulino dos Santos doubled up with two gold medals across the final two days, anchoring Brazil’s medal table on the women’s side. The Santiago event functioned as the qualifier path for several Pan-Am roster spots ahead of the Pan American Youth and Masters Championships in Medellín later in the summer, which is already shaping up to draw a record-sized field.

Cakıroğlu Elected World Archery Europe President

Off the field, World Archery Europe held its 20th Congress in Antalya alongside the Championships. Hakan Cakıroğlu was elected the new president of World Archery Europe on May 22, succeeding the outgoing executive board. Two British members were also elected to European committees, signaling continued UK representation in continental governance at a time when ArcheryGB is investing heavily in pathway funding and competition infrastructure. The Congress also closed out the Belarus participation policy debate that opened the season — federations now have a unified framework for the rest of the year.

Antalya 2026 Compound and Recurve Highlights — Watch the Action

If you only have time for one video this week, World Archery’s official Antalya 2026 highlights reel covers both the compound and recurve finals in just under fifteen minutes. Watch Burun’s nerveless tens, Haney’s shoot-off arrow, and Bakker’s championship-winning end.

Looking Ahead

The international calendar barely takes a breath. The Pan-American Youth and Masters Championships in Medellín are now under three weeks away and have already locked in a record-sized field across cadet, junior, and 50+ divisions — expect bracket previews to start landing midweek. The next stop on the Hyundai Archery World Cup tour also looms, with the European Championship medalists carrying form into their respective national selection events.

Closer to home, the Easton Foundations Salt Lake Summit reopens the following weekend for the U15, U18, and U21 fields, and several state field associations have spring 3D shoots on the schedule that will set state rankings for the summer. The NFAA outdoor calendar also continues with national field qualifiers across the southeastern and mountain west chapters.

For Türkiye, the conversation now turns to whether Burun and Haney can carry their continental form onto the World Cup circuit — and whether the Dutch compound program, which still walked away from Antalya with two team golds, will counter at the next World Cup stage. For Germany, the recurve team sweep is the first signal in years that the country’s pathway program may have meaningfully closed the gap to Korea and Türkiye at the senior level.

If you are reviewing your own setup before the summer outdoor season ramps up, two recent guides on the site are worth a second read: our single pin vs. multi-pin bow sight comparison covers the decision tree most outdoor target archers will face this year, and our release aid buying guide walks through how to match trigger style to your discipline. For last week’s results from Shanghai, see our previous roundup.

Additional continental coverage is also available from World Archery Europe. See you next Monday.