Beginners’ guide to the Madrid 2019 World Archery Youth Championships
The 2019 World Archery Youth Championships are the largest since the event was launched in 2000. Nearly 600 athletes aged 21 and under will begin the week looking to win world titles in front of Madrid’s Royal Palace.
There’s a huge mixture of experience and talent on the entry list. It features Olympians, qualifiers for the upcoming Hyundai Archery World Cup – one world number one – and plenty of youngsters making their debuts in the international arena.
Factsheet: Madrid 2019
- Venues: Zona Sur University Sports Complex (qualification and elimination) and Palacio Real (finals)
- Dates: 19-25 August
- Number of athletes: 585 from 61 countries
- Juniors (under 21): 112 recurve men, 73 recurve women, 63 compound men and 45 compound women
- Cadets (under 18): 107 recurve men, 83 recurve women, 55 compound men and 47 compound women
- Medals: 20 (four individual and six team for junior and cadet age groups)
Schedule
- Tuesday 20 August: Qualification
- Wednesday 21 August: Early eliminations
- Thursday 22 August: Individual and team eliminations
- Friday 23 August: Team eliminations and bronze medal matches
- Saturday 24 August: Compound finals (cadet morning, junior evening)
- Sunday 25 August: Recurve finals (cadet morning, junior evening)
Reigning world champions
These are the results from the 2017 World Archery Youth Championships in Rosario, Argentina. Those previous championships were also a qualification event for the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games.
Individual
- Recurve junior men: Jeong Taeyeong, Korea (not competing, now 21+)
- Recurve junior women: Kim Kyoungeun, Korea (not competing, now 21+)
- Recurve cadet men: Tang Chih-Chun, Chinese Taipei (competing as junior)
- Recurve cadet women: Park Sohui, Korea (not competing)
- Compound junior men: Curtis Broadnax, USA (competing)
- Compound junior women: Alexis Ruiz, USA (competing)
- Compound cadet men: Bryan Alvarado, Puerto Rico (competing as junior)
- Compound cadet women: Lucy Mason, Great Britain (competing as junior)
Team
- Recurve junior men: Korea
- Recurve junior women: Italy
- Recurve junior mixed: India
- Recurve cadet men: USA
- Recurve cadet women: Japan
- Recurve cadet mixed: Chinese Taipei
- Compound junior men: Mexico
- Compound junior women: Mexico
- Compound junior mixed: Great Britain
- Compound cadet men: USA
- Compound cadet women: Mexico
- Compound cadet mixed: Turkey
Five facts
1. What does ‘junior’ and ‘cadet’ really mean? Archers in the junior category in Madrid were born on or after 1 January 1999 (under 21). Archers in the cadet category were born on or after 1 January 2002 (under 18).
2. Record numbers of competitors. The previously best-attended World Archery Youth Championships was held in Legnica, Poland in 2011 – when 561 athletes participated in total. The 15th championships in Rosario two years ago had 528.
3. Paralympic Champion. Jessica Stretton, winner of the W1 women’s gold medal at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games when she was 16, is representing Great Britain in the compound junior women’s event in Madrid.
Stretton, 19, shoots from a wheelchair and finished second in the compound open competition at the World Archery Para Championships earlier this summer. This is her first able-bodied tournament.
4. Top-ranked archer in the world. There several athletes competing in Madrid that have already proven themselves on the world stage – both in their age group and as seniors. None more so than Alexis Ruiz.
Arriving in Madrid as the defending junior champion, Ruiz is also the number one ranked compound woman in the world having podiumed at four out of four Hyundai Archery World Cup stages in 2019.
5. Home soil for home favourites. Spain has never had a winner at the World Archery Youth Championships before. (Or at the senior outdoor championships, either.) But at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires last summer, Spanish archers did very well.
Elia Canales came second in the recurve women’s event to China’s Zhang Mengyao, while Jose Manuel Solera paired with France’s Kyla Touraine-Helias to take gold in the mixed nation mixed team competition.
Both are competing in Madrid. The hosts should be optimistic about its athletes’ medal chances.
Competition format
Recurve athletes shoot at 122cm targets set 70 metres away for juniors and 60 metres away for cadets, with 10 scoring zones awarding 10 to one points. Competition starts with a 72-arrow ranking round, used to seed athletes, and is followed by an elimination bracket resolved using set system matchplay.
Athletes shoot sets of three arrows – and the highest-scoring athlete in the set receives two set points; a draw awards one set point to each athlete. The first athlete to six set points wins the match.
Mixed teams shoot sets of four arrows and teams shoot sets of six arrows, two arrows per athlete per set. The first team or mixed team to five set points wins the match.
Compound athletes shoot at 80cm targets set 50 metres away, with six scoring zones awarding 10 to five points (the outer four are removed). Competition starts with a 72-arrow ranking round, used to seed athletes, and is followed by an elimination bracket resolved using cumulative scoring matchplay.
Athletes shoot matches of 15 arrows, in five ends of three arrows, and the highest-scoring athlete wins the match. Mixed teams shoot matches of 16 arrows and teams shoot matches of 24 arrows, two arrows per athlete across four ends.
The 2019 World Archery Youth Championships takes place on 19-25 August in Madrid, Spain.
