Round-up: Four first-timers secure World Cup stage wins in Antalya

The 17th season of the Hyundai Archery World Cup opened this week in the Turkish coastal resort of Antalya, where four first-time winners secured the individual titles – and qualified themselves to the circuit’s grand finale, taking place in Mexico in September.

Dan Olaru, Penny Healey, Jozef Bosansky and Jyothi Surekha Vennam are now confirmed for Hermosillo.

Olaru’s gold medal in the recurve men’s event wasn’t just a personal first – but an historic result for Moldova. It’s the country’s first major medal on the world stage and Olaru will be the first Moldovan to appear at the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final.

Healey became the second consecutive British recurve woman to win in Antalya, following in the footsteps of teammate Bryony Pitman.

Top Indian compounder Vennam and Slovakian 46-year-old Bosansky ended their long quests for individual gold medals. Vennam beat seven-time and reigning Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion Sara Lopez in the final of her 20th appearance on the circuit over the past 11 years – and putting India second in the tournament medal table.

The defending circuit title holder in the compound men’s event, Mike Schloesser, finished fourth after losing the bronze medal match to Juwaidi Mazuki of Malaysia.

Two world and six continental records were broken during the competition week in Antalya, including the compound men’s team qualification world record, which was increased by three points to 2140 out of a possible 2160 by incumbent owners, the USA.

Key takeaways

China has returned to the circuit as a contender. Only one win in Antalya, courtesy the recurve men’s team resilience in the face of an Indian comeback that went all the way to a tiebreak, but a silver medal from the recurve women’s team and a bronze from individual An Qixuan is evidence enough that the Chinese team’s return to the world stage after a four year break won’t be quiet. Look for them to produce a bigger haul on home soil at stage two next month in Shanghai.

The level in the compound events has taken another huge leap. As well as the US men breaking the senior qualifying world record, the top compound men’s score on day one – 717 from Dane Mathias Fullerton – was also ratified as an under-21 world record. A phenomenal 49 compound men and 15 compound women shot 700 points or more on a near perfect afternoon. That’s a staggering 42% of the field.

Team events matter more in 2023. The qualification system for the 2024 Olympic Games was updated to reduce the number of quota places available for full teams at the world championships (from eight to three) and redistribute them across some continental championships and the world ranking. Two recurve men’s teams and two recurve women’s teams will qualify for Paris solely on their position in the world ranking – and those nations that have noticed are putting much more emphasis on the events on international circuit.

Winners: Antalya 2023

See full results online.

• Recurve men: Dan Olaru, Moldova
• Recurve women: Penny Healey, Great Britain
• Compound men: Jozef Bosansky, Slovakia
• Compound women: Jyothi Surekha Vennam, India
• Recurve men team: China
• Recurve women team: Mexico
• Recurve mixed team: USA
• Compound men team: Denmark
• Compound women team: USA
• Compound mixed team: India

Top of the medal table was the USA (two gold, two silver), followed by India (two gold, one silver, one bronze) and China (one gold, one silver, one bronze).

A total of 389 archers from 52 countries competed in the opening stage of the 2023 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Antalya, Türkiye. Qualification and eliminations took place at the Antalya archery field on 18-21 April, followed by finals on Konyaalti beach on 22-23 April.

The international circuit now moves to Shanghai, China, for its second stage on 16-21 May.