Top 3: Archers at the 2021 World Archery Youth Championships

More than 500 archers from nearly 60 countries won 20 world titles last weekend in Poland.

Finals weekend was fairly frantic – with more than 16 hours of medal matches taking place over just two days. We heard the Indian national anthem a whopping eight times – and after seven of the 12 team (and mixed team) events.

Even among all those arrows, there were three archers who stood out.

Here are our best performers from the 2021 World Archery Youth Champions.

3) Robin Jaatma

Who are they? Compound man from Estonia.

Where did they finish? Double gold medallist in the under-21 individual and mixed team events.

Why are they on this list? Recently, archers that win this under-21 world title have tended to do well at the senior world championships the same year. (See: Stephan Hansen, 2015; Anders Faugstad, 2019.) Robin shot a good individual final, finishing with seven straight 10s to beat France’s Mateo Mangelle by two points with a 146. But he shot a better mixed team final, hitting the maximum with seven of his eight shots.

2) Amanda Mlinaric

Who are they? Compound woman from Croatia.

Where did they finish? Under-21 individual champion.

Why are they on this list? No compound woman had ever successfully defended the under-21 compound women’s world title. Now, Amanda has. She wasn’t perfect in the final – far from it – but she’s a winner. In an interview ahead of the finals, she said that her competition scores far outshine her practice results. That’s a matchplay archer, right there.

1) Komalika Bari

Who are they? Recurve woman from India.

Where did they finish? Double gold medallist in the under-21 individual and mixed team events.

Why are they on this list? The reigning under-18 world champion arriving in Wroclaw, Komalika graduated to the under-21 class and won another world title. She was impressive in her come-from-behind individual gold medal match victory over Spain’s Elia Canales and was the deciding factor in India’s mixed pair that also took the title.

If she continues on this trajectory, she’s destined for stardom – which is a great thing for India, a country that’s relied on Deepika Kumari to carry too much of the load for too long.