Barebow World Record Falls Again | Archery Weekly Jul 13–19

Records in barebow rarely last long anymore, and this week proved it. Sarah Hubbard held the women’s 50-metre barebow world record for barely five weeks before she broke it herself. That was the headline, but it was far from the only thing that moved between July 13 and 19 — a doping case reshuffled a World Cup Final podium, a new continental event welcomed Para archers for the first time, and the sport lost one of its most respected coaching minds. Here’s everything worth knowing from the past seven days.

Sarah Hubbard Rewrites the Barebow World Record — Again

Great Britain’s Sarah Hubbard shot 650 out of a possible 720 at the ArcheryGB National Tour in Wisley, adding two points to the barebow world record of 648 she had set only last month at the second stage of the same series. Both scores are pending ratification by World Archery, but the trajectory is hard to ignore: Hubbard has now owned this record twice inside six weeks.

What makes 650 remarkable is the discipline it comes from. Barebow archers shoot with no sights, no stabilisers, and no clicker — they aim by “stringwalking” the fingers up and down the string and reading the gap between the arrow point and the target. Squeezing 650 points out of 72 arrows at 50 metres with that setup is, frankly, absurd. For context, a score in the low 600s would have been considered elite three seasons ago. Hubbard’s next stated target is the double 50-metre record, and on this form it feels less like a question of whether and more like when. If you’re curious how her equipment compares to Olympic recurve gear, our barebow vs recurve breakdown lays out the differences.

There’s a bigger story underneath the number. Barebow has been the fastest-growing target discipline in the sport for a few years now, and records tumbling this fast are a symptom of it. More shooters at the top means more pressure on the ceiling, and the equipment barrier is low — a decent riser, a set of limbs, a plunger, and a tab, with none of the sight-and-stabiliser spend that recurve demands. That accessibility is exactly why so many range regulars are picking it up as a second string. When the world record moves twice in six weeks, it’s usually because the talent pool underneath it just got a lot deeper.

A Doping Ban Hands Andrea Becerra Her First World Cup Final Title

Mexico’s Andrea Becerra was awarded the compound women’s title from the 2025 Archery World Cup Final this week — not on the shooting line, but on paper. World Archery reallocated the result after her teammate Mariana Bernal accepted a three-year sanction for an anti-doping rule violation.

Bernal tested positive for nandrolone, an anabolic steroid, in an out-of-competition control conducted by the International Testing Agency on September 29, 2025. Because she admitted the violation early, she received a one-year reduction, leaving a three-year ban that runs from December 22, 2025 to December 21, 2028. Every individual result from the September test date onward was struck, and that included the World Cup Final crown she won in Nanjing. It now belongs to Becerra — her first trophy on the senior international circuit, and a strange way to earn one. There’s no clean feeling in a title that arrives by disqualification, but the anti-doping process did exactly what it’s supposed to do: protect the archers who compete clean.

Para Archery Makes Its South American Games Debut in Valledupar

History was made in Colombia this week. Para archery appeared on the programme of the Para South American Games for the first time, with competition running July 13–15 at the Armando Maestre Pavajeau Stadium in Valledupar. Fifty athletes from eight countries contested 13 gold medals across the recurve, compound, W1, and visually impaired categories.

Brazil arrived as the team to beat, fielding the largest delegation at 12 archers spread across all four divisions, and its squad carried serious pedigree — including Paralympian and 2024 Pan American Para Championships gold medallist Reinaldo Vagner Charão Ferreira and world number 10 Helena Nunes de Moraes. Hosts Colombia backed a 10-strong team and pushed hard for the top seeds. Getting Para events onto a multi-sport continental programme matters more than any single medal count: it builds the qualification pathways and funding cases that keep athletes in the sport between Paralympic cycles.

The Sport Loses Anne Reculet at 53

The archery community was shaken on July 14 by news that Anne Reculet, a leading figure in French high-performance archery, had died at 53 following a ruptured aneurysm. Tributes came quickly from across the European federations.

Reculet spent years shaping the systems behind France’s rise on the recurve stage, the kind of work that never shows up in a medal table but decides who ends up standing on the podium. Coaching and development leaders like her are the connective tissue of any national program — recruiting talent, retaining coaches, and quietly building the culture that produces champions a decade later. Her loss is felt well beyond France.

Madrid Closes the World Cup Circuit and Sets the Saltillo Field

The dust has settled on the Hyundai Archery World Cup’s final stage in Madrid, and the picture for September’s Final is now clear. Of the 392 athletes who competed in the Spanish capital from July 7–12, only four secured the last remaining individual tickets to the World Cup Final in Saltillo, Mexico.

Home favourites gave the Madrid crowd plenty to cheer, with Spain taking the recurve mixed team gold against China and Pablo Gómez Zuluaga winning compound men’s individual gold. Brady Ellison, meanwhile, had already locked up his 15th career World Cup Final appearance back in April by winning stage one in Puebla — a reminder that at this level, the season’s biggest decisions are often made in the first event, not the last. We broke down the full Madrid results in our Madrid World Cup recap.

Africa’s Best Head to Oran for the 15th Continental Championships

Attention now shifts to North Africa. World Archery previewed the 15th African Archery Championships this week, set to be hosted in Oran, Algeria. The event is a continental qualifier and one of the year’s most important dates for archers building toward global rankings from a region that too often flies under the radar.

African championships carry weight beyond the medals. Continental qualifying slots for World Championships and the next Olympic cycle run through events exactly like this one, and a strong showing in Oran can put an unheralded archer onto the international radar for the first time. Keep an eye on the compound categories in particular, where the depth across the continent has grown sharply over the last two seasons.

What This Week Means for Your Setup

News weeks like this one aren’t just spectator sport — they tend to move gear trends, too. Hubbard’s barebow record is the clearest example. Every time a barebow score makes headlines, interest in stringwalking tabs, quality plungers, and heavier-riser barebow builds ticks up, because newer archers want to chase the same discipline they just watched break a record. If you’ve been shooting recurve and eyeing a switch, the entry cost is genuinely modest compared to a fully sighted setup.

The compound story matters for a different reason. Elite compound shooting at a World Cup Final is decided by fractions of a millimetre, and that precision starts with tuned arrows and a properly timed cam system, not the bow’s price tag. The gap between a mid-tier compound and a flagship narrows fast once your arrows are spined correctly and your rest is dialled. It’s the least glamorous part of the sport and the part that decides medals. Watching the season’s best shoot is a good reminder to spend your money on arrow selection and tuning before you chase the next riser.

Looking Ahead

Next week is a busy one for youth archery on both sides of the Atlantic. The European Youth Championships run July 20–26 in Italy, gathering the continent’s best cadet and junior shooters — always a useful preview of who’s about to break through at senior level. Across the ocean, the WIAWIS USA Archery JOAD Target Nationals and JOAD U.S. Open take over the Lincoln Sports Foundation in Nebraska from July 22–26, drawing the top young recurve, compound, barebow, and fixed-pin archers in the country.

Further out, the whole season points to Saltillo, Mexico in September, where the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final closes the circuit’s 20th-anniversary year. Eight archers per division earned their place there across four stages — and if this week taught us anything, it’s that the records they’re chasing won’t stay standing for long. If you want to see where the current marks sit, our guide to barebow world records is a good place to start.

Sources

1. World Archery — Sarah Hubbard breaks five-week-old barebow world record with 650
2. World Archery — Mariana Bernal accepts three-year anti-doping sanction
3. ESPN — World champion archer Bernal banned three years for steroid doping
4. World Archery — Para archery makes historic South American Games debut
5. World Archery — Final tickets for Saltillo on offer in Madrid