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Mexican archers battling for four individual titles at Pan Am Champs

12 April 2024

Medellin, Colombia

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Matias Grande will take on Jackson Mirich – again – for gold.

Mexico will attempt a clean sweep of the continental titles on finals weekend in Medellin, with archers in all four individual finals at these Pan American Championships.

Olympic medallist Alejandra Valencia, Sebastian Garcia and Dafne Quintero will all shoot for gold – but the headline is emerging talent Matias Grande, who’s set for a rematch with the man to whom he lost the Pan American Games final at the end of last year, the USA’s Jackson Mirich.

“I’m proud because of all the effort we’ve put in creating this new team,” said Grande.

Mexico’s recurve squad for 2024 – and the Olympics, if all goes as planned – has an average age of just 23. Matias is 19 years old.

“We are now seeing the results of all the work we have been doing and it is nice to witness it,” he continued.

Grande seeded fourth in the recurve men’s event, shooting 680 points exactly, but all three higher qualifiers were eliminated in the last-16, the first round of matchplay today at Unidad Deportiva de Belen, headquarters of the Colombian federation.

Brady Ellison lost to Brazil’s Mateus De Carvalho (6-0), Eric Peters fell foul of a shoot-off to Jack Williams and world number one Marcus D’Almeida was, somehow, upset by a rollercoaster of a fiver-setter from Mirich, who had shot 27 points less in qualifying.

Grande booked the Pan Am Games rematch against Mirich with a semifinal tiebreak against Cuba’s Hugo Franco, delivering a winning 10.

“I knew I could shoot a good arrow and was super confident,” he said. “I’ve been working hard.”

Competition continues in Medellin with compound finals on Saturday at the Pan American Championships.

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