Sebastian Garcia becomes Mexico’s first outdoor world champion in Madrid

Mexican archer Sebastian Garcia is Mexico’s first outdoor individual world champion after beating Daniil Kosenkov of Russia, 146-142, to compound cadet men’s gold at the 2019 World Archery Youth Championships in Madrid, Spain.

He was also part of the gold-medal-winning Mexican mixed team, paired with Dafne Quintero.

“I’m very excited, very happy. I knew I could win. I counted on it,” said Garcia. “When I climbed the podium and saw everyone there and heard World Archery announcing: ‘compound cadet world champion Sebastian Garcia from Mexico’, I cried.”

Seeded fourth at these championships, Garcia opened the final with a 29-point end to Kosenkov’s 28. The Russian archer responded with a perfect 30 in the second end, to swap the advantage and lead by one, 58-57, but Garcia fought hard and tied the match at 86 points each after nine arrows.

Sebastian finished strong.

He closed the 15-arrow-match with six consecutive perfect 10s. Kosenkov scored ends of 30 and 26 points. Sebastian celebrated his and Mexico’s first outdoor World Archery Champion title.

“Throughout the competition, I only shot once in the red and that’s something that gave me lots of security. I knew this match was going to end well, I was shooting well, I was training for this and I came to do what I was already doing at home,” he said.

“I wouldn’t have won it without my coach Ruben Ochoa, who’s supporting me from home, Angel Ramirez, who was my coach here, and every person who helped us get here with every single penny donated, and my family.”

It was uncertain whether the Mexican team would compete at the 2019 World Archery Youth Championships as the athletes were informed they had no funding. With state, family and friends’ support, the full squad eventually made the trip.

Turkey’s Batuhan Akcaoglu beat Slovenia’s Tim Jevsnik, 145-130, to take bronze. Jevsnik timed out on an arrow and that took him out of the match.

Mexico also secured the cadet mixed team title with Garcia and Dafne Quintero, after the pair beat Makenzie Weatherspoon and Cole Zeug of the USA, 154-152.

“We are very happy, we trained a lot in Mexico,” said Dafne. “We worked with our coach Ruben Ochoa on how not to get nervous while shooting and that helped us a lot today.”

The Mexican under 18us, who both come from Coahuila city, share Ruben Ochoa Vidal as a coach and have been shooting as a mixed team together for the past two years. They didn’t miss the middle once in the 16-arrow match.

“Our coach prepared us well simulating under pressure matches and shooting many tournaments,” he said. “It’s hard not to have him here, but we also trusted Angel Ramirez, who’s here with us. He’s a good friend of Ruben and all our confidence was with him.”

Garcia, who collected his individual medal after climbing the podium with his teammate Dafne, said the two medals meant different things.

“I appreciate her a lot. We have a good relationship, we are from the same city and we’ve been shooting together for a few years now,” he said. “But having individual recognition and become World Champion is completely different.”

Garcia and Dafne shot a world record 159-point match in the semifinals.

Alyssa Mollema and Rory Blake of Australia beat Pragati and Chirag Vidyarthi of India by two, 153 to 151, to secure compound cadet mixed team bronze on Friday.

The 2019 World Archery Youth Championships takes place on 19-25 August in Madrid, Spain.