The third and final regular stage of the 2024 Hyundai Archery World Cup was always going to carry an unusual weight. Held on the permanent archery field overlooking the Mediterranean in Antalya, Türkiye from June 18–23, 2024, it was not only the last chance for archers to earn a spot in October's World Cup Final in Tlaxcala — it was the final major qualifying event for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. With the Games less than five weeks away, every arrow counted twice: once for Tlaxcala, and once for Paris.
India dominated the compound divisions throughout the day programme, the Chinese women continued their surge in recurve, and on the final day of individual finals, Kim Woojin and Elisa Roner — two of the sport's most decorated names — claimed their respective stage gold medals and booked their tickets to the season's climax in Mexico. Over 600 athletes competed across the week, with the boiling summer heat of the Turkish Riviera testing every archer's composure as much as any opponent.
Competition Format
- Distance: 70 metres (recurve) and 50 metres (compound), outdoors.
- Individual Format: 72-arrow qualification establishing seeds, followed by a single-elimination bracket from the round of 64 (individuals) or round of 16 (qualified teams).
- Recurve Matches: Set system — best of five sets, three arrows per set, shoot-off at 5-5.
- Compound Matches: Cumulative scoring — five ends of three arrows, maximum 150 points, shoot-off on a tie.
- Olympic Significance: Stage 3 Antalya served as the Final Olympic Qualification Tournament for the Paris 2024 Games, with several outstanding recurve team places still to be distributed based on world rankings after the event.
Qualification Round Highlights
China's Yang Xiaolei fired a personal best of 673 points to lead the recurve women's qualification — the only woman to break 670 in Antalya that day. Korea's Lim Sihyeon, winner of both World Cup stages so far in 2024, shot her lowest score of the season, 661, as the gusty Antalya field conditions caused widespread disruption. In the men's event, Korea's Lee Woo Seok and Kim Woojin tied at the top with 691 each. In the compound events, India's women's team qualified first overall, foreshadowing their dominance in the team events to follow.
Compound Team Events — Wednesday–Saturday
India's women's compound team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Swami and Parneet Kaur were simply imperious across the team rounds, extending an extraordinary unbeaten run to 13 consecutive World Cup matches. Their gold medal match win over Estonia — the team of Meeri-Marita Paas, Maris Tetsmann and Lisell Jaatma — by 232-226 was clinical and commanding, completing a historic hat-trick of World Cup gold medals in the same calendar year across Shanghai, Yecheon and Antalya. It was a level of team compound consistency that set up what would be a major expectation of Indian archery heading into the World Cup Final in Tlaxcala.
Italy won the compound men's team gold, while the recurve teams were contested across multiple sessions, with Korea's men claiming the team title and China's women — who had now unseated Korea as the top-ranked women's recurve team — producing another strong team performance.
Compound Individual Events — Saturday, June 22
Men's Compound Individual
World number one Mike Schloesser arrived in Antalya on the back of two consecutive near-misses — shoot-off losses in both Shanghai and Yecheon — and carrying obvious frustration at watching his impeccable form not translate into stage wins. He did not let it happen a third time. Schloesser was clinical from start to finish, navigating his way through the elimination rounds without conceding a single shoot-off and shooting 149 in both his semifinal and gold medal match. His final was against India's Priyansh, 21 years old and shooting in the form of his life — the young Indian had reached the final with a perfect 150 in his semifinal against Mathias Fullerton. In the gold medal match, Priyansh dropped a nine in the final end when precision was paramount, and Schloesser capitalised immediately, shooting his last two arrows dead-centre to seal his eighth World Cup stage title.
"I've felt like lately, I've been mentally, physically and shooting the best in a long while but I came short every single time," said Schloesser after the win. "The only way to win tournaments now is give everything you have and hopefully that's enough." For Elisa Roner, the compound women's winner, staging an upset was slightly more motivated: she needed a stage win to qualify for the World Cup Final in Tlaxcala.
- 🥇 Gold: Mike Schloesser (Netherlands) — His eighth individual World Cup stage gold. Two previous near-misses this season made this result all the sweeter: 149 in both the semifinal and final, an authoritative and clinical day's work from the world number one.
- 🥈 Silver: Priyansh (India) — The 21-year-old Indian had shot a perfect 150 in the semifinal against Fullerton and nearly kept pace with Schloesser across the full fifteen arrows of the final, before a nine at the crucial moment cost him what would have been a breakthrough result.
- 🥉 Bronze: Mathias Fullerton (Denmark) — The defending World Cup Final champion and world record holder claimed bronze after his semifinal exit against Priyansh, reaffirming his standing as one of the sport's elite heading into the Olympic summer and the Tlaxcala Final in October.
Women's Compound Individual
Elisa Roner — the reigning Indoor World Series champion and back-to-back Series Finals winner in Las Vegas — arrived in Antalya knowing that a stage win was the surest path to securing her World Cup Final spot. She delivered it with characteristic composure, defeating world number one Ella Gibson in the semifinal and then Estonian Meeri-Marita Paas — herself making her first World Cup individual final — to claim her maiden outdoor World Cup stage gold.
Roner's emotion after the final arrow was palpable. "I still can't believe it," said the tearful Italian. "It means so much to me because it was my biggest dream. I always watched this competition as a kid and always dreamed to win it… finally I have a chance." Earlier in the day, Roner had also claimed compound mixed team bronze for Italy, underlining a remarkable week in Antalya that completed her qualification for Tlaxcala.
- 🥇 Gold: Elisa Roner (Italy) — A maiden outdoor World Cup stage gold for the 22-year-old who had already won two consecutive Indoor World Series Finals in Las Vegas. Her win in Antalya completed her qualification for the Tlaxcala World Cup Final, and her tearful reaction spoke to just how much it meant.
- 🥈 Silver: Meeri-Marita Paas (Estonia) — A debut World Cup individual final for the young Estonian, who had won team gold with her compatriots earlier in the week. A silver medal was a career-best result and a preview of the talent that would go on to reach the Tlaxcala Final itself in October.
- 🥉 Bronze: Ella Gibson (Great Britain) — The world number one had eliminated Sara Lopez earlier in the bracket and pushed Roner in the semifinal, claiming bronze and remaining one of compound women's most consistent performers on the outdoor circuit.
Recurve Individual Events — Sunday, June 23
Men's Recurve Individual
The men's recurve gold medal match brought together Kim Woojin (Korea) and Marcus D'Almeida (Brazil) — two of the greatest individual performers of the modern outdoor era — in what World Archery would describe as one of the finest individual matches of the season. D'Almeida started poorly by his own standards, shooting 26 in the opening end as Kim led from the front. But the Brazilian — as is his nature — found his form, shooting three consecutive 29s and a perfect 30 in the final end to claw back and tie the match at six set points apiece, forcing a shoot-off.
In the shoot-off, both men hit the nine ring — but Kim's arrow was closer to centre, giving Korea their individual gold medal. "This was one of the best matches of my life," said D'Almeida after the shoot-off. "I'm happy this moment happened before the Olympic Games." For Kim — who had finished the earlier team gold match as part of Korea's winning side — the individual gold felt like the greater achievement. "The afternoon match was much more fun than the morning team match," he admitted. "Every match was very close, all went into the last moments — it was a fun day for me." It was a statement of intent ahead of Paris.
- 🥇 Gold: Kim Woojin (Republic of Korea) — His first individual World Cup stage gold of 2024, ending a relative individual hoodoo with a shoot-off win over D'Almeida in one of the year's finest recurve matches. A perfect pre-Olympic statement of intent five weeks out from Paris.
- 🥈 Silver: Marcus D'Almeida (Brazil) — A near-perfect second half of the match from Brazil's world number one, who recovered from a shaky opening end to force a shoot-off, only to be beaten by the narrowest of margins. D'Almeida's form ahead of Paris was ominous.
- 🥉 Bronze: Dhiraj Bommadevara (India) — The 22-year-old Indian claimed his first World Cup individual medal, defeating Italy's Mauro Nespoli 7-3 in the bronze medal match to announce himself to the broader international stage ahead of his Paris Olympic debut.
Women's Recurve Individual
Yang Xiaolei (China) — who had led qualification with her personal-best 673 and been part of two consecutive Chinese women's team gold medal wins earlier in the week — completed an extraordinary personal and team week with a first individual World Cup stage gold in the women's recurve final. Having worked her way through the bracket to meet a fellow Chinese opponent in the final, Yang secured the title in a shoot-off after both archers had finished tied. Her sarcastic smile as she loosed what looked like a borderline final arrow — then the stunned disbelief when it was confirmed a winning 10 — became one of the most memorable reaction images of the entire 2024 outdoor season.
"Win or lose, I was still looking forward to it today," Yang said. "We should always be of the opinion to do it, and then believe in myself and believe my team." It was a result that confirmed China's recurve women as a genuine rival to Korea's dynasty heading into the Paris Olympic Games.
- 🥇 Gold: Yang Xiaolei (China) — Her first individual World Cup stage gold, claimed via shoot-off on the biggest individual stage she had yet reached. An announcement of a major talent in an Olympic year, from a Chinese women's team that had the world's full attention heading into Paris.
- 🥈 Silver: Alejandra Valencia (Mexico) — The experienced Mexican veteran, who had already won team bronze with the Mexican women's side earlier in the week, reached her best individual World Cup result of the season, finishing runner-up to Yang.
- 🥉 Bronze: Ankita Bhakat (India) — A bronze medal to cap an excellent week for Indian archery in Antalya, though the result was tempered by the fact that India's women's recurve team had failed to qualify for Paris 2024.
Key Takeaways
- Kim Woojin vs. D'Almeida in the recurve men's final — one of the finest individual World Cup stage matches of 2024 — confirmed that the two men most likely to meet at the Olympic final in Paris five weeks later were in sublime form. They did indeed meet: in the Olympic final at Les Invalides, producing an even more famous result.
- Yang Xiaolei's first individual World Cup gold confirmed China's recurve women as the most serious challengers to Korean dominance, a storyline that would play out dramatically at both the Paris Olympics and the Tlaxcala Final.
- Mike Schloesser ended his Antalya gold drought with his eighth stage title after near-misses in both Shanghai and Yecheon, delivering it with characteristic composure in the face of India's Priyansh's near-perfect challenge.
- Elisa Roner's emotional maiden outdoor stage gold — her tears after the final arrow were one of the season's most human moments — completed her Tlaxcala Final qualification while adding another chapter to what would become one of the finest careers in compound women's archery.
- India's women's compound team hat-trick across Shanghai, Yecheon and Antalya was a feat of consistency rarely seen in any team archery event, cementing their status as the dominant compound team force of 2024.
- With Paris 2024 five weeks away, the Olympic final spots remained wide open. Every name on the Antalya podium — Woojin, D'Almeida, Yang, Roner, Schloesser — would go on to play major roles at the Games or at the Tlaxcala World Cup Final in October. The Antalya stage served as the perfect pre-Olympic dress rehearsal.