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Formbook holds as World Games barebow semifinals set in Chengdu

14 août 2025

Chengdu, China

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The final day of barebow eliminations on the field course at Qinglong Lake Park cut the women’s and men’s fields – 11 and 12 strong respectively – down to the last four at the Chengdu 2025 World Games. As with the recurve competition earlier this week, the six-target field had its distances altered every two matches to ensure fair competition.

Both defending World Games Champions from Birmingham 2022, Cinzia Noziglia and Erik Jonsson, had already secured their semifinal berths by finishing first and second in women’s and men’s qualification.

The women’s eliminations in the morning opened with Noziglia and the second-placed archer, France’s Alicia Baumert shooting an exhibition match to choose which half of the draw they wanted to face in the semifinal. While this was a low-pressure part of the competition, the scoreline – a massive 80-64 win for the Italian – was ominous ahead of the Saturday’s finals.

The first big name to exit was Lina Bjorklund, the 2022 bronze medallist and multiple world field champion. The Swede lost 61-63 to 11th seed Christine Schäfer of Germany, admitting she struggled with both the heat and her shot.

“I’m in ninth place, and that’s not where I thought I would be, but anything can happen with barebow,” said Bjorklund. “You just have to struggle and keep on, even after a bad target.”

Ultimately, the women’s semifinals mirrored the top four from qualifying: Noziglia, Baumert, Australia’s Nicky Fairweather and USA’s Fawn Girard.

Girard, the reigning world field champion from Lac La Biche 2024, was confident after a dominant performance against Rosemarie Leitner of Germany in the quarterfinals.

“It was stressful,” she said. “But I stayed in my process and did what I had to do.”

The American, who posted the third highest score of the day behind Noziglia and Fairweather, was bullish about the finals tomorrow.

“This is mine. I got it,” she declared.

The top men’s seeds, Simone Barbieri and Jonsson, also contested an exhibition match – with the Italian edging a narrow 83-82 victory.

Barbieri will meet Australia’s Simon Fairweather in the semifinals after the Sydney 2000 Olympic Champion beat USA’s Ryan Davis 73-70. Davis had earlier eliminated David Jackson and David Garcia Garcia.

Though the quarterfinal wasn’t the cleanest match, it was enough to put a second Fairweather into the last day of competition.

Jonsson will face Cesar Vera of Spain, the only lower seed to upset the formbook, after the 2024 world field champion beat fourth seed Michael Mayer of Germany 82-78 in the quarters – a score suggesting he could pose a serious challenge for gold on Saturday.

“In my second match, I managed to focus better and make no big mistakes, so I’m very happy to be in the match tomorrow,” said Vera, who recovered from a costly early error when he shot the wrong target in his first end against Lei Wang of China.

“To me, barebow is just free time with friends, enjoying the travel and competitions,” added the 61-year-old. ”It’s the only kind of bow I’ve ever shot. It’s more than sport – it’s just my life.”

The archery competition at the World Games concludes tomorrow with the barebow finals.