Sheetal Devi takes the gold (Photo World Archery)
India’s Sheetal Devi became compound women’s world champion at the Gwangju 2025 World Archery Para Championships, beating the reigning champion Oznur Cure Girdi, 146-143 on the stage at 5.18 Democracy Square.
”I had a dream I would become world champion. It made me want to work. I worked and worked and today I’ve got such a good result,” said Devi.
The journey of Sheetal Devi, born with a rare congenital disorder that left her without arms, is perhaps the greatest legacy of the original ‘armless archer’ Matt Stutzman, who inspired both her and several other para archers to take up the sport.
Still only 18 years old, Sheetal’s career as a performance athlete rocketed after winning her first major in 2022 at the Asian Games, and a silver in Pilsen followed by mixed team bronze in Paris saw her familiar with the biggest podiums.
The match against Girdi was a re-run of the 2023 final in Pilsen. ”The pressure wasn’t great. I controlled myself and shot very calmly. My heartbeat wasn’t so fast, so there was less pressure. It felt amazing just to be in the finals again,” said Devi.
Tied up after the first end, the match pivoted on the second end, which Devi cleaned while Girdi dropped three points. It would be enough, as Devi shot solidly enough to maintain a lead right through to the end.
Both Devi and Girdi had a triple shift to work on compound Saturday, with individual, mixed team and team matches to navigate. Girdi triumphed in women’s doubles alongside Busra Fatma Un, beating the team of Devi and Sarita 152-148.
Devi also took mixed team bronze against Great Britain, with Girdi taking silver in the mixed team gold final against China. It was the only Chinese victory of the day, as they lost to the USA in the men’s doubles and were well beaten by Great Britain in the women’s doubles.
The compound men’s title also went to India, as Toman Kumar took the title after a disastrous technical failure for his opponent and teammate Rakesh Kumar during the gold medal match.
Rakesh had a problem with a cam on his bow, which rapidly got worse. After an end and a half of scoring, he was forced to withdraw, handing Toman the match and the title of world champion.
Despite the walkover, the achievement to get to the final stage was enormous. ”I took a lot of efforts to practice. We had camps. I practiced day and night to get here. So I’m very happy with the result.” said Toman.
Great Britain’s Nathan MacQueen took bronze against Shyam Sunder Swami, 148-141, keeping the podium from being a clean sweep for India.
The USA took a historic gold against reigning champions China, 156-153. “We had a good game plan coming into this. Our timing was really on, we came in there pretty confident. We knew if we did our system we had a good chance,” said Kevin Polish.
“I couldn’t ask for a better teammate (Ben Thompson) right now. It’s a memory I’ll never forget.”
Meanwhile in the visually impaired category, Cyprus’s Christos Misos is the new VI1 world champion, after beating Ruben Vanhollebeke in the final.
“It was a very, very hard job, getting here, a very hard job with my trainer. The last set was tied, and I got that seven to get the win,” said Misos.
It was Misos’ first major title win after many silver medals at world level. “It was our discipline that made it happen. Just one arrow can make the difference,” he said.
The 47-year-old took up archery in 2014 after going blind due to a virus. The first ever VI archer in Cyprus, he devoted his life to the sport and is also a coach and judge. He made a performance breakthrough this year, winning the Rome 2025 European Para Archery Cup.
Visually impaired archers shoot over 30 metres, and matches use the set system.
The bronze medal went to Craig Newbery of Australia, who competed with his daughter Jacqueline Newbery acting as spotter, as they did in Pilsen, where he took silver. “Very exciting. I shot better today than I did yesterday. Today was a clean slate,” he said.
“What’s next for me? Gold in Australia.” The 2027 World Para Championships will be held in Canberra.
The VI2/3 category also crowned a new champion, Nicholas Thomas of Great Britain. Third last time out at Pilsen 2023, he beat Kathleen Meurrens of Belgium 6-4 to become the new world champion.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling, to be honest with you. I was very, very nervous up there. I know Kathleen very well, all the VI archers know each other very well. So yeah it’s a strange sensation you know shooting against somebody you know so well.”
Thomas came back against Muerrens, who took the lead after the third set, to close it out with sets of 26 and 25.
Nicholas grasps the mantle from the British winner of the last two VI2/3 world titles, Steve Prowse.
“It’s something I’ve worked really hard for for the last couple of years and yeah, just finally made it and I’m really, really happy.”
The bronze went to Mihai Bursuc, taking his first ever world championship medal, who won the match from Korean Kim Sungmin, 6-2.
Podiums
Compound men
- Toman Kumar, India
- Rakesh Kumar, India
- Nathan McQueen, Great Britain
Compound women
- Sheetal Devi, India
- Oznur Cure Girdi, Türkiye
- Jodie Grinham, Great Britain
Compound men’s team
- USA (Kevin Polisdh, Ben Thompson)
- China (Zhang Yicheng, Bao Yirui)
- Great Britain (Nathan MacQueen, Jamie Harris)
Compound women’s team
- Türkiye (Oznur Cure Girdi, Busra Fatma Un)
- India (Sheetal Devi, Sarita)
- Great Britain (Jessica Stretton, Phoebe Paterson Pine)
Compound mixed team
- China (Zhang Yicheng, Xu Xueqing)
- Türkiye (Oznur Cure Girdi, Kenan Baboaglu)
- India (Sheetal Devi, Toman Kumar)
Visually impaired 1
- Christos Misos, Cyprus
- Ruben Vanhollebeke, Belgium
- Craig Newberry, Australia
Visually impaired 2/3
- Nicholas Thomas, Great Britain
- Kathleen Muerrens, Belgium
- Mihai Bursuc, Romania
