Archery Blog
Team Mathews Sweeps IBO Triple Crown | Archery Weekly Jul 28–Aug 3
Aug
Three competitions on two continents, a shoot-off decided by inches, and one bow brand walking away with both Triple Crown titles. Here is everything that happened in archery from July 28 through August 3, 2026.
Slusarz Makes It Back-to-Back: IBO Triple Crown 2026 Goes to Team Mathews
Jacob Slusarz is a two-time IBO Triple Crown champion. He closed out the 2026 three-leg series by winning the third leg outright in Nelsonville, Ohio, then held the overall lead to claim his second consecutive title. The series ran across three events: Pipestem, West Virginia; Franklin, Pennsylvania; and Nelsonville — each featuring unmarked 3D targets on real terrain where competitors judge distance, pick shot angles, and execute under conditions that replicate actual bowhunting far more closely than a standard measured range ever will.
On the women’s side, Cara Kelly did the same. She won leg one in Pipestem and placed third in legs two and three, accumulating enough points to take the women’s Triple Crown title. Both Slusarz and Kelly shoot Mathews compounds. Team Mathews swept the women’s podium across the series — that kind of consistency heading into fall bowhunting season is not luck. It reflects off-season preparation and equipment that holds up across varied terrain and weather conditions.
The IBO Triple Crown matters because it tests the skills that actually save deer. Ethical shot selection at unknown distances, reading terrain, managing pressure on a timed stand — there is no shot clock in the woods, but there is in the IBO format. Archers who compete in it regularly tend to be measurably better hunters. Slusarz has now proven himself twice in that format. Expect the Mathews ARC lineup to get significant attention from serious bowhunters this fall because of it.
If you are heading into bowhunting season and want sharper shot selection, our deer shot placement guide breaks down the five key angles ranked by lethality — the same decisions IBO competitors face on every unmarked target.
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Pizarro Takes Americas Compound Gold in a Shoot-Off
Jean Pizarro Latorre of Puerto Rico won the men’s compound individual gold at the World Archery Americas Championship in Santo Domingo — and he needed a shoot-off to get there. After five ends against Mexico’s Rodrigo Gonzalez De Alba, both archers sat at 144. Single arrow for the gold: both shot nines. Pizarro’s arrow landed closer to center, and Puerto Rico had its title.
The qualification round had flagged the tension early. Pizarro shot 704 to qualify second, one point behind Colombia’s Pablo Gomez Zuluaga (707), with Gonzalez De Alba tied at 704. Mexico had more overall depth, but Pizarro was the steadier shooter when the stakes were highest. Mexico’s recurve program meanwhile ran its standard continental operation — Matias Grande led men’s qualification with 672 (one point clear of Cuba’s Hugo Franco) and won individual gold 6-4 over Colombia’s Jorge Enriquez. Alejandra Valencia Trujillo took women’s recurve gold 6-2 over teammate Ana Paula Vazquez Flores in an all-Mexico final. Mexico defended all three recurve team titles as well.
The real surprise came in compound team events, where El Salvador defeated Mexico 223-222 in the women’s compound team final. A one-point margin against Mexico at a continental championship is not how most people would have called that bracket. It signals that the Americas circuit is getting more competitive outside its traditional top tier — which is good for the sport. Full results at World Archery.
Sara Lopez Repeats: Colombia’s Compound Queen Claims Another Americas Crown
Sara Lopez defeated Mexico’s Andrea Maya Becerra Arizaga 147-145 in the women’s compound final. Becerra had posted the highest qualification score of the entire championship — 709, a Games record — and Lopez still won. She beat Becerra at the 2018 Americas Championship in Barranquilla too, making it two Americas titles against the same opponent across eight years.
The 147-145 scoreline is deceptive. A 145 in a major continental final is exceptional shooting; Lopez just scored 147. That two-point margin against an archer who set a Games record in qualification shows the level Lopez operates at. With the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final set for Saltillo, Mexico in September, the women’s compound draw is worth watching closely. If the September final produces a third Lopez-Becerra meeting, expect it to come down to the last arrow again.
Africa Shows Up in Oran: Highlights from the 2026 African Archery Championships
The 15th edition of the African Archery Championships ran July 21–26 in Oran, Algeria. Marwa Rahmoun, a 23-year-old from Algeria, won individual barebow women’s gold and added a mixed team title with Chafik Mekki. Home crowd, yes — but those medals required performance under World Archery rules and real competition. Rahmoun’s mixed team win on her home field in Oran is a result that should travel beyond the African circuit.
Namibia’s Jannie Meuwesen took compound individual gold 133-128 over Adrien Charoux and collected four golds across the event. Meuwesen is 46 years old and is using this season specifically to prepare for LA28 — a context that makes those four golds carry a different weight than a routine continental title. Namibia’s haul was the best single-nation performance at the championship.
Junior Aristide Falang Delli of Cameroon won barebow men’s gold at age 20. He made a point that deserves to be heard beyond Oran: “We have to order equipment from Europe. And to order, you need money.” That single comment explains most of the gap between African archery’s potential and its current output. Delli’s gold came despite those barriers. Senegal’s Aliou Drame, meanwhile, won his third consecutive para recurve title — sustained dominance that rarely gets the international attention it has earned. The full African Championships results are at World Archery.
$50,000 on the Line: USA Archery Target Nationals Head to Springfield
August 12–15 in Springfield, Missouri: the 142nd USA Archery Target Nationals and 2026 U.S. Open. The headline addition is the inaugural USAT Series Final on August 12, which carries a $50,000 prize purse and an expanded finals format specifically built to close the gap between domestic competition and international-level pressure. This is USA Archery publicly testing whether higher stakes and a tighter format can grow the domestic audience for target archery — and the outcome will shape what the Series Final looks like in future years. Track results and live coverage at usarchery.org.
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The Electronic Sight Debate — What It Means If Alaska Sets a Precedent
One conversation running quietly through the bowhunting world this season involves electronic bow sights and range-finding scopes. Alaska has proposals on the table to legalize them for bowhunting. The Pope and Young Club — which maintains fair-chase records for bowhunting — opposes the move, arguing it redefines what fair chase means when a device calculates distance and compensates the shot for you.
The case for electronic sights is not unreasonable: unknown distance is the most common cause of wounded-but-not-recovered animals, and technology that closes that gap can produce more ethical kills. The case against is equally coherent — once a range-finding device handles the variable that has always defined the difficulty of bowhunting, the sport has changed in a way that is hard to walk back. The IBO Triple Crown, for what it is worth, is a direct argument for the opposition’s position: the whole point of unmarked 3D targets is that judging distance is part of the skill Slusarz and Kelly are being tested on.
Alaska’s decision will not end the national conversation, but it will move it. If you are setting up a conventional sight and rest combination for this season, our breakdown of drop-away vs. containment arrow rests is worth reading alongside your sight selection — the pairing affects your tuning window more than most archers account for when they switch sights.
Looking Ahead
USA Archery Target Nationals and U.S. Open run August 12–15 in Springfield, Missouri. The inaugural USAT Series Final on the 12th with its $50,000 purse is the main watch item. September 12–13 brings the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final to Saltillo, Mexico — thirty-two qualifiers, CHF 30,000 per gold, and if the Santo Domingo women’s compound final is any indication, the top of that draw is going to be decided by two or three points at most.
For bowhunters: archery deer seasons open across multiple states in September. The next six weeks of practice are the ones that determine what happens in October. A compound archer who spent this summer shooting unmarked distances — the way the IBO format demands — will be more confident at 35 yards on a real animal than one who only ever shot measured lanes.
Sources
- Jean Pizarro Latorre, Sara Lopez win compound golds at Santo Domingo 2026 — World Archery
- Best archers at the 2026 African Archery Championships — World Archery
- El Salvador Triumphs in the Compound Team Finals at Santo Domingo 2026 — World Archery Americas
- Jacob Slusarz Claims Third Leg and Back-to-Back IBO Triple Crown Titles — The Outdoor Wire
- Team Mathews Crowns 2026 Women’s Triple Crown Champion — The Outdoor Wire
- 142nd USA Archery Target Nationals and 2026 U.S. Open — USA Archery
