Old and new champions at World Cup Final -

Tears, drama, joy, disappointment – the Nanjing 2025 Archery World Cup Final didn’t fail to disappoint but ultimately proved to be two days of contrasts.

Mariana Bernal became the first compound women archer not named Sara Lopez since Odense 2016 to win the category on the 2025 international premier circuit – her maiden Final triumph.

Emircan Haney then followed suit in compound men as another new name to win the competition, impressively beating previous champions Mike Schloesser and Mathias Fullerton en route.

Their consistency this season in the stages meant that they should never have been written off but neither were the number one favourites to win in China.

Thus a new guard was truly borne into top level of compound, the old[ish] guard in recurve however rose to the occasion.

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games recurve women champion An San – only 24 but has been at world level for the best part of five years – made up for her disappointment in Gwangju last month to end on a high and American great Brady Ellison took home his sixth World Cup Final.

He is now statistically the most successful recurve men archer on the ultimatum of the circuit.

Key takeaways

There is more to Mexico’s compound women than Andrea Becerra – Even with this loss, the world number one – a position she took from Ella Gibson earlier this year – has had a blistering season winning two World Cup stages [Central Florida, Antalya] the Chengdu 2025 World Games and the World Championships.

Defeating Türkiye’s Hazal Burun and India’s Jyothi Surekha Vennam gave her just one match left to have the ideal outdoors period in 2025. Mariana Bernal had other ideas. The 22 year old athlete has been quietly consistent this season – six top 10 finishes in international competitions – and forced Becerra into a shootoff at 147-147, her 10 13.9 millimeters exactly closer to the spider. It is the second time Bernal has bested her Mexican teammate this season – Copa Merengue final – so for 2026 expect to see a few more Mexican one-twos in compound women.

Emircan Haney the heir to Demir Elmaagacli? – Before Saturday, USA were the only country to historically have more than one World Cup champion in compound men [five], now Türkiye have two thanks to Haney. Elmaagacli had to overcome one of those Americans, a certain Reo Dee Wilde, on the way to claim his 2015 World Cup trophy.

Similarly Haney beat another great – although Dutch not American – in Mike Schloesser before pipping Hermosillo 2023 champion Mathias Fullerton 149-148. Also a mixed team gold medallist in Samsun 2018, Elmaagacli is arguably Türkiye’s finest export in compound men but with Haney at 24, time is definitely on his side to surpass his predecessor’s resume.

Brady Ellison overtakes Kim Woojin… for now – The magic of the recurve men gold medal match last year in Paris 2024 Olympic Games is not lost on any archery fans. I

t was a meeting of two of the sport’s greatest minds, delivering fully as their legendary legacies suggested it would. Woojin got one over Ellison that fateful day at Les Invalides but the American’s victory on Sunday was his sixth in the World Cup Final. Superceding his Korean counterpart’s five, he is now the leading recurve men archer on the circuit historically speaking. At 36, the ’s-Hertogenbosch 2019 Hyundai World champion is showing no signs of slowing down.