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Turkish recurvers best Korea at World Archery Youth Championships

21 août 2025

Winnipeg, Canada

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Qualification concluded on Wednesday in Winnipeg in all eight individual categories across the under-21 and under-18 age groups – and two young Turkish recurvers, Kutay Tek and Berkay Akkoyun, sat on top of the junior men’s field at the 2025 World Archery Youth Championships, ahead of all three men Korean archers.

“I feel so good,” said Tek, who led the field with 678, seven points ahead of his teammate. “This is my last under-21 competition. It’s perfect, I think.”

Tek won a team gold indoors in Samsun this year, while Akkoyun was European youth champion outdoors in 2022.

Scores across the board were not huge, in humid and windy conditions.

“I do a lot of training in wind like this. I didn’t know I’d ranked first. My goal? For me and Berkay to shoot the final together, shooting for gold,” he laughed.

Pole position in the under-21 recurve women went to Angela Ruiz, a team bronze medallist at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The 19-year-old Olympian Ruiz was 15 points clear of the field.

“I’m pretty satisfied with what I’ve done, and satisfied because it’s my last youth worlds,” said the Mexican. “Closing this chapter of my life like that is awesome.”

“I’ve been searching for a world title in a lot of competitions, and I’ve been getting better and better. It’s a great start. I’m going to just shoot and enjoy it.”

World number three Penny Healey, who won the World Cup stage in Florida this year, placed eighth after a shoot-off.

“I could finish last and still win the competition,” she said. “I’m jet-lagged, I’m not very well, so today was just about shooting my shots properly and getting my technique right before matches.”

Kushal Dalal of India, twice an Asia Cup gold medallist this year, topped the under-21 compound men’s field with 700 – the only 700 score on any board today – while his teammate Parneet Kaur led the women’s chart with 699.

That also put the Indian pairing ranked first in the important mixed team compound competition, which finishes on Saturday. As with all international mixed team events now, the words ‘LA Olympics’ aren’t far away.

“Our seniors are also shooting well, but maybe we can give them a tough competition,” grinned Dalal.

“The score was a little low for me. I hope I can perform better the rest of this week.”

”We used all the techniques to work with the wind, shifting our aim, and shooting quick,” he added.

After significant de lays to many countries’ squads arriving in Canada, several teams arrived with reduced numbers.

Just two members of the 21-strong Kazakhstan team, Sanzhar Yerzhanuly and Alexandra Zemlyanova, eventually made it to Winnipeg hours before qualification, with their also-delayed bows arriving just minutes before the first arrows – thanks to a heroic volunteer, Duncan Crawford, who had spent all night ferrying stranded archers and bows to and from Winnipeg airport.

Competition continues on Wednesday with individual eliminations, followed by team eliminations on Thursday.