Lopez shoots 150 12X in Medellin arena to set new match world record

Colombian compound woman Sara Lopez has set a new world record for the 15-arrow 50-metre match – and she’s done it in the arena.

In her bronze medal match at the fourth stage of the 2022 Hyundai Archery World Cup match on home soil in Medellin, the world number two shot a perfect 150 with 12 Xs to beat Andrea Becerra and break Linda Ochoa-Anderson’s standing record of 11 Xs set in the USA back in 2018.

“I’m in shock because I shot with a different release,” said Lopez, who turned to a hinge and subsequently matched Reo Wilde’s men’s matchplay record.

“Before I went to the field my coach told me: ‘Use the back tension, let’s work on your technique and see what happens, medals don’t matter’. I was so focused on my work and my rhythm that I never counted the Xs, I didn't even realise I shot 150. It was only when I left the field that someone told me about the new world record.”

This unassuming bronze medal match is now the highest-ever score to be shot in front of a crowd and cameras.

“The first world record I made was in the first world cup stage that Medellin hosted and my family was with me. Now I’m doing a new world record also with my family and I'm really very, very happy,” she said.

Nearly nine years ago to the day (18 July 2013), Lopez became the first-ever compound woman to shoot a competition 150, also in Medellin.

Photo courtesy Óscar David Ríos Gil.