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Grande, Ruiz secure first Indoor World Series titles at home

16 February 2026

Merida, Mexico

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Matias Grande celebrates first Indoor World Series title in Merida 2026.

A vociferous home crowd, rising expectations and breakthrough performances.

Matias Grande and Angela Ruiz rose to the occasion in Merida, each winning the first Indoor World Series title of their careers on home soil.

Grande edged USA’s Nicholas D’Amour in a thrilling recurve men’s final via a shoot-off, while Ruiz delivered a dominant display to secure the women’s crown.

In fact, it was a start-to-finish victory for Grande, who maintained solid form throughout the weekend. He topped the qualification round on Saturday with a score of 594, continued his strong display through the eliminations and sealed the title on Sunday.

With both archers showing exceptional skill and temperament, D’Amour rallied from a 5-1 deficit to take four set points and force a tie-break. But the world number three from Celaya delivered the closest 10 to clinch the win.

For both archers, the Merida 500 will remain special, marking their best Indoor World Series results to date. Grande arrived as the 2025 Pan American Indoor Champion and with a third-place finish at The Vegas Shoot last year, while D’Amour owns a bronze medal from the Indoor Archery World Series Finals.

D’Amour has also been in fine form outdoors, highlighted by gold at the San Cristobal 2025 Pan American Field Archery Championships, where he edged world number one Marcus D’Almeida to claim the title on Mexican soil.

The recurve men’s bronze medal match was another thriller between two home athletes. Pan American Indoor Championships silver medallist Juan Pablo Tellez Aguirre fought back from two set points down to pip Luis Alvarez for the podium.

The 15th seed Tellez Aguirre shot a perfect final end to secure his first Indoor World Series medal.

It was another Mexican victory in the recurve women’s final, as 19-year-old Ruiz secured her best result on the Indoor World Series circuit.

Buoyed by the home crowd, Ruiz maintained top form and shot three perfect ends of 30 to claim a commanding 6-0 win over compatriot and Berlin 2023 Hyundai World Archery Championships silver medallist Alejandra Valencia.

“My performance here was more or less what I’ve been working on since Nimes,” said Ruiz, the Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medallist in the women’s team event. “The idea is to repeat it, and also improve the individual result. But I’m very excited to be doing it here.”

“It’s a step in the right direction, towards what I want to achieve for Los Angeles. We’re going step by step, building a little more confidence. And today, I just went with the flow. I’m very excited.”

Competing in her debut Indoor World Series season, the 19-year-old had already underlined her rising consistency with silver behind Victoria Sebastian in Nimes.

Sebastian, chasing a third title of the season following victories at the Taipei Archery Open and in Nimes, faltered in the quarterfinals, losing 6-4 to Gaby Schloesser. Schloesser eventually finished fourth behind Ana Luiza Sliachticas Caetano, the Rio Indoor 250 winner.

You can watch all medal matches back with a subscription to archery+.

Las Vegas (USA) hosts the season finale of the Indoor Archery World Series – The Vegas Shoot – from 27–29 March.