Preview: World Archery Para Championships heads to Korea with 17 titles on the line

As Paralympians like to say after the Olympics has wrapped: it’s time for the main event. A total of 239 athletes from 47 countries will compete at the Gwangju 2025 World Archery Para Championships next week in Korea from 22-28 September.  

Following the highly successful Hyundai World Archery Championships earlier this month, the para worlds will also take place at the Gwangju International Archery Center, with finals again staged in 5.18 Democracy Square.

It has been a year since the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games and two years since the last para worlds in Pilsen. The 2025 season has already featured multiple international para events – and now comes the biggest stage.

Fifteen world titles will be decided across recurve, compound and W1, in individual, doubles and mixed team events, in Gwangju.

In addition, two world titles are available in the visually impaired categories, V1 and V2/3. Eighteen athletes from 17 nations are entered across the two classifications, which are not separated by gender.

Four of the six reigning Paralympic Champions from Paris will be in action in Gwangju – Harvinder Singh, Wu Chunyan, Oznur Cure Girdi and Jason Tabansky. Wu and Girdi are also reigning world champions.

They will be joined by a strong field of Paralympic and world medallists, including  Sarka Pultar Musilova, David Drahoninsky, Nathan MacQueen, Jodie Grinham, Elisabetta Mijno, Jessica Stretton, Phoebe Paterson Pine, Pooja, Sheetal Devi and Piotr Van Montagu.

Key information

What’s happening? The 15th World Archery Para Championships on 22-28 September 2025 in Gwangju, Korea.

What’s at stake? Seventeen world titles in individual, doubles and mixed team events.

Who’s competing? 239 archers from 47 countries across the six Paralympic categories and visually impaired divisions. 

What’s the story? The para worlds return to Korea for the first time since Cheongju 2007, with full production and TV coverage for the best para archers on the planet.

Event schedule

• Tuesday 23 September: Qualification
• Wednesday 24 September: Qualification and eliminations
• Thursday 25 September: Eliminations
• Friday 26 September: Doubles eliminations, VI qualification and eliminations
• Saturday 27 September: VI finals (morning) and compound finals (afternoon)
• Sunday 28 September: W1 finals (morning) and recurve finals (afternoon)

How to watch

Live coverage of the World Archery Para Championships will be available via local broadcasters in selected countries. You can watch the finals from Gwangju with a subscription to archery+. 

• Live: Compound finals – 27 September at 05h00 UTC
• Live: W1 finals – 28 September at 00h00 UTC
• Live: Recurve finals – 28 September at 05h00 UTC

Live scores will be available on the World Archery website, and there will be coverage on World Archery’s digital platforms throughout the competition.

The VI (visually impaired) finals will be available on demand on archery+ at a later date. 

Stories

1) What have China got in the tank? The country has been dominant at world level for the past decade in terms of medal count, and topped the medal table in Pilsen with seven gold medals, the fruit of a decades-long investment in para sport.

They are sending 18 athletes to Gwangju, including reigning world and Paralympic champion Wu Chunyan – a total beaten only by the host nation Korea, with 21 athletes competing. (Korea, however, only won a single bronze medal in Pilsen, and much more will be expected in Gwangju.)

But we haven't seen much of Chunyan or the other Chinese athletes internationally this year. Will they dominate again, against a well-practiced international field? We’ll see. 

2) Elisabetta Mijno - is it time? Despite a long and storied career, going back to her international debut in 2008, the veteran Italian is still seeking her first individual world or Paralympic title (she was a mixed team gold medallist at Paris 2024 and mixed team world champ at Beijing 2017).

After a dominant performance at the last major European event in Nove Mesto, will the 39-year-old have enough to take gold? “It’s time to do it.” she said. It would cap a remarkable career. 

3) Harvinder Singh - can he pull off the double? The Indian recurver won the Paralympic title at the second attempt after taking bronze in Tokyo, becoming India’s first gold medallist in archery at either Games – and was given the prestigious Padma Shri award as a result. Part of a powerhouse Indian team in Gwangju, much is expected of the world number one.

A world title to go with the Paralympic gold would cement him as the best para recurve of his generation. He's been winning this year too, but had a minor wobble in the build up to the worlds. 

Competition categories

Four competition classifications will participate in the upcoming world championships.

The recurve and compound categories mirror those in standing competition and, aside from an extension to the time allowed to shoot an arrow (20 to 30 seconds in arena matchplay), the competition format and equipment rules are exactly the same.

The W1 category is for the most impaired athletes, whose impairments affect at least three limbs and the torso. W1 athletes can use either a recurve or compound bow with weight and accessory limitations. The competition format is the same as for the compound category.

Recurve, compound and W1 archers are often classified to use a variety of assistive devices, ranging from wheelchairs and stools to mouth tabs and specialised release aids; which devices are permitted depends on each archer’s individual impairment.

Visually impaired archers are grouped into two categories. In the VI1 category, athletes have very little to no vision and are required to wear a blindfold to ensure a level playing field. In the VI2/3 category, archers have a higher level of visual acuity and may compete without a blindfold, since its use is not mandatory.

The champions

These are the reigning para world champions from Pilsen 2023:

• Recurve men: Kevin Mather, USA (not competing)
• Recurve women: Wu Chunyan, China
• Compound men: Matteo Bonacina, Italy (not competing)
• Compound women: Oznur Cure Girdi, Türkiye
• W1 men: Christopher Davis, Australia
• W1 women: Lu Zhang, China (not competing)
• Visually impaired 1: Matteo Panariello, Italy (not competing)
• Visually impaired 2/3*: Steve Prowse, Great Britain (not competing)

These are the reigning Paralympic Champions from Paris 2024: 

• Recurve men: Harvinder Singh, India
• Recurve women: Wu Chunyan, China
• Compound men: Matt Stutzman, USA (not competing)
• Compound women: Oznur Cure Girdi, Türkiye
• W1 men: Jason Tabansky, USA
• W1 women: Chen Minyi, China (not competing)

Who’s competing?

These are the archers currently highest in the para world rankings arriving in Korea:

• Recurve men open: Harvinder Singh, India (world rank: 1)
• Recurve women open: Ziva Lavrinc, Slovenia (world rank: 1)
• Compound men open: Rakesh Kumar, India (world rank: 2)
• Compound women open: Nur Syahidah Alim, Singapore (world rank:1)
• W1 men: Jason Tabansky, USA (world rank: 1)
• W1 women: Sarka Pultar Musilova, Czechia (world rank: 1)
• Visually impaired 1: Christos Misos, Cyprus (world rank: 1)
• Visually impaired 2/3: Daniele Piran, Italy (world rank: 1)

A total of 237 archers from the national teams of the following 47 countries are registered for these championships: AIN (neutral individual athletes), Andorra, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Cyprus, Czechia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong China, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Thailand, Türkiye, Uganda, Ukraine, and the United States of America.

Competition in Gwangju starts with qualifying on Tuesday.