(Photo World Archery)
Spain gained their inaugural World Championship gold in the recurve mixed team final on a hot Wednesday afternoon much to the disappointment of hometown hero An San at the Gwangju 2025 World Archery Championships.
Elia Canales and Andres Temiño Mediel didn’t look like the visiting side, looking far more comfortable on the stage at 5.18 Democracy Square than An San and Kim Woojin as the former dropped the only two eights on the Spanish side of things whilst their Korean counterparts costly shot three of them and a wide seven to end a 6-2 score line.
“I’m really proud of our team, myself, my country, everything and I’m really happy,” said the 2024 European Championship silver medallist who was emotional throughout the medal ceremony. “I have no words for today and I’ve been thinking about this moment a lot of times and it finally became real so I’m just going to enjoy the moment.”
“We’ve been there a lot of times in World Cups and World Championships is another similar competition. So, if it wasn’t this time, then maybe it would be another time.”
“We just trust ourselves and in every competition, we give our 100 per cent and that’s it.”
As well as an upset, Spain’s joy against two Olympic champions [An San women Tokyo 2020, Woojin men Paris 2024] symbolises the arrival of another European country to the world medal table.
When going back through the history books, the nation consistently had recurvers competing at Olympic Games and World Championships with the likes of Antonio Vázquez Mejido, Carlos Holguín and Olimpia Alemán in the 80s and 90s but actually getting a hold of major honours had proved to be a sticking issue.
It wasn’t until 2015 when Miguel Alvarino Garcia – who failed to make the squad this year and last – initiated the healthy period of Spanish archery results we see today, winning the 2015 World Cup Final and European Games.
Pablo Acha succeeded at the 2021 European Championships also and fellow countryman Alvarino then retained the same title for Spain in 2022.
Temino Mediel – the second seed of the individuals – was the one partnering Canales today but the 24 year old archer has shot alongside national icon Alvarino many times before and they prevailed together in the Krakow-Malopolska 2023 European Games mixed team event.
Today’s massive piece of history has now surpassed anything her former partner has done, and the tears on the podium painted the picture of a long lasting target completed.
“I’m really proud of it because this season I didn’t shoot a 670 in any competition, so that doing in a world championship, it’s better,” she replied when asked about her own individual shooting from yesterday’s qualification where she equalled her personal best of 673.
Canales and Temino Mediel etching their names into the history books came at the cost of home nation Korea however who began the recurve week without any setbacks from their supreme standards as An San and Woojin broke the mixed team 144-arrow record [1393 points].
2022 Archery World Cup Final champion An San was in a pleasant mood after the women’s team medal ceremony – which Korea captured bronze in – but inside she will be reeling from an unideal strat to her campaign at 5.18 Democracy Square.
The Korean collapse was mainly down to her, failing to land a single arrow in the 10-ring and an extremely wide-right seven, touching the six line.
“It’s true that it was really hard because the match ended late and I didn’t have a lot of time to recover,” An San, 24, explained when discussing the difference between her performance in the mixed team gold and women’s team bronze. “I feel really sorry and grateful to Woojin, but I think I loosened up a bit after I did the mixed team event, so I think I was able to convey myself better during the team event.”
“It’s a bit disappointing, but it’s still very meaningful to be standing on the podium, and I’m grateful that we were able to show our fans what Korean archery really is.”
An San, 24, may not have struck gold today but she was still quote clearly the only thing that mattered to most of the watching public in Gwangju with swathes of fans leaving their seats after she, Lim Sihyeon and Kang Chaeyoung had completed their 5-3 dispatch of India.
They all flocked to their local hero just outside the venue for autographs and pictures – where a paper cut-out of her is located.
If she didn’t need motivation already for tomorrow’s women individuals – which the first three rounds take place at the Gwangju Archery International Centre – then she’ll certainly have it now coursing through her veins from seeing the fans that turned out for her today.
There was reason to cheer by home support as Woojin, Je Deok Kim and Woo Seok Lee swept aside USA in straight sets [6-0], all despite Woo Seok damaging his finger tab midway through the match whilst the youthful trio of Li Cai Xuan, Hsu Hsin-tzu and Chiu Yi-Ching got Chinese Taipei’ second recurve women gold medal in World Championship history.
Podiums
Recurve men’s team
- Korea (Kim Woojin. Kim Je Deok, Lee Woo Seok)
- USA (Brady Ellison, Trenton Cowles, Christian Stoddard)
- Japan (Tetsuya Aoshima, Junya Nakanishi, Yuki Kawata)
Recurve women’s team
- Chinese Taipei (MIchelle Kroppen, Katharina Bauer, Charline Schwarz)
- Japan (Nanami Asakuno, Tomomi Sugimoto, Ruka Uehara)
- Korea (Lim Sihyeon, Kang Chaeyoung, An San)
Recurve mixed team
- Spain (Elia Canales, Andres Termino Mediel)
- Korea (Kim Woojin, An San)
- Japan (Nanami Asakuno, Junya Nakanishi)
