Preview: Santiago hosts Pan Am champs, one year until Games

The largest international archery event to ever take place in Chile arrives next week in the country’s capital of Santiago.

One year out from hosting the Pan American and Para Pan American Games, the city is welcoming more than 300 of the continent’s best archers for the Pan Am Championships – which also combine both able-bodied and para competitions.

Titles – and quota places for next summer’s multisport event – are on the line.

Among the biggest names competing are Brazil’s Marcus D’Almedia, reigning and seven-time Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion Sara Lopez of Colombia, and the host nation’s Paralympic medallist Mariana Zuniga.

Key information

What’s happening? The 20th edition of the Pan American and Para Pan American Archery Championships on 21 -17 November 2022 at the military school in Santiago, Chile.

What’s at stake? Continental titles and quota places for the 2023 Pan Am and Para Pan Am Games.

Who’s competing? 334 archers from 27 countries.

What’s the story? Chile is hosting the largest international archery event in its history because next year the capital, Santiago, will also host the Pan Am and Para Pan Am Games. As well the Pan American Champion titles available this week, there are also quota places for both those multisport events on the slate.

Event schedule

• Tuesday 22 November: Qualifications 
• Wednesday 23 November: Team eliminations (para – qualifications)
• Thursday 24 November: Eliminations (para – doubles eliminations)
• Friday 25 November: Pan Am Games secondary event (para – eliminations)
• Saturday 26 November: Para and team finals
• Sunday 27 November: Finals

Defending champions

See full results from the Monterrey 2021 Pan and Para Pan American Championships.

• Recurve men: Santiago Arcila, Colombia (not competing)
• Recurve women: Valentina Vazquez, Mexico (not competing)
• Compound men: Daniel Munoz, Colombia
• Compound women: Nora Valdez, Colombia (not competing)
• Barebow men: Danny Quintero, Colombia (not competing)
• Barebow women: Fabienne Estrada, Mexico (not competing)

Titles will also be awarded in all six individual para categories.

• Recurve men (para): Samuel Molina, Mexico
• Recurve women (para): Fabiola Dergovics, Brazil (not competing)
• Compound men (para): Omar Echeverria, Mexico
• Compound women (para): Mariana Zuniga, Chile
• W1 men (para): Esdras Rocha, Brazil
• W1 women (para): Lia Coryell, USA

How to watch

Coverage of the Pan American Championships is being shown worldwide by broadcast partners, including Claro Sports in Latin America, and streamed live on World Archery’s YouTube channel in available countries. Live scores will be available on the World Archery website, and there will be coverage on World Archery America’s digital platforms throughout the competition.

Pan Am Games qualifying

There are 58 quota places for the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games available at these championships, 36 for recurve archers and 22 for compound archers.

The 36 recurve quotas (18 per gender) will go to the top five finishing teams (three each) and the next three individuals ranked after a secondary event held on Friday, which will only see eligible countries compete. The 22 compound quotas (11 per gender) will go to the top five teams (two each) and the next.highest-finishing individual in the championships. Chile already has a full quota of recurve archers – but can upgrade its single quotas in the compound events.

There are 32 quota places for the Santiago 2023 Para Pan American Games available at these championships, distributed to the top qualifiers in each of the six individual competition categories. The top seven finishers in each of the recurve and compound events will win tickets, as well as the top two W1 men and W1 women. Chile already has a full quota of one athlete in each category.

Doing double

Chile’s star archer, Mariana Zuniga, arrives at the competition field as the reigning compound women’s para champion at this event. The 20-year-old made her name at last summer’s Paralympic Games in Tokyo, first by being the first archer from her country to ever appear at the event and then by making the podium, taking silver. Not content with defending her one title on home soil – Zuniga is going for two.

Mariana will compete in both the able-bodied and para events at these championships. The packed double schedule will be no easy feat in the 30-plus degree heats (Celsius, not Fahrenheit) that are expected – so how well will Zuniga cope?

Who’s competing?

These are the top-ranked archers competing in Santiago:

• Recurve men: Marcus D’Almedia, Brazil (world rank: 2)
• Recurve women: Casey Kaufhold, USA (world rank: 2)
• Compound men: Miguel Becerra, Mexico (world rank: 2)
• Compound women: Sara Lopez, Colombia (world rank: 2)

A total of 334 archers (190 men, 144 women) from the national teams of the following 27 countries are registered to compete at these championships: Argentina, Bahamas, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Virgin Islands US, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, USA, Venezuela, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.