Who stood out in Nanjing? The best archers of the 2025 season closer

It was a case of fresh faces in compound but familiar ones in recurve as the winners of the Nanjing 2025 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final were crowned.

In the 19th edition of the competition, Emircan Haney and Mariana Bernal beat the world number one and two archers of their respective men’s and women’s categories, becoming the latest new names among World Cup Champions, while Brady Ellison and An San kept their reputations firmly intact by claiming the recurve trophies.

Four stages over 10 months on archery's premier international circuit came down to this – but who were the three archers who impressed most in the 2025 outdoor season closer?

3. An San, Korea

It was a strange sight not to see An San on the Korean recurve women’s team last year and even more shocking to see her absent from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, considering her star-making performance at Tokyo 2020. That is just the nature of the beast that is Korea.

Back on the team after a year out, however, An San faced pressure from her huge fanbase to hit the ground running – something that peaked in her hometown of Gwangju at the 2025 Hyundai World Archery Championships. She suffered an excruciating loss to teammate Kang Chaeyoung then – having been up 4-0 at one stage – but avenged herself against ’The Destroyer’ in Nanjing’s semifinals, 7-3, making up for the disappointment of the previous month.

Her semifinal and gold medal match performances against Hsu Hsin-Tzu put her firmly on this list. At just 17, Hsu had nothing to lose, while An San had everything. Even when a shoot-off was called – much to her surprise – the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games silver medallist managed the wind better than her Chinese Taipei counterpart. A wide left eight is not the most convincing shot, but it was enough to end her season on a high.

An San managed the pressure cooker this time for her second World Cup title – Tlaxcala 2022 being her first.

2. Mariana Bernal, Mexico

Bernal could easily have been the number one pick.

Andrea Becerra has been the star of 2025 for Mexico and the entire compound women’s discipline. Learning from a string of near misses in previous seasons, the 25-year-old archer dominated the category this year, conquering two World Cup stages (Central Florida and Antalya), the World Games and the world championships. She also dethroned Ella Gibson from her long-standing perch as world number one.

These results built an unbeatable aura around Becerra, but that was not enough to quell her fellow Mexican teammate Bernal. The Gwangju team victors had faced each other three times earlier this year, but it wasn’t a clean sweep for Becerra. The 2018 Pan American Championships bronze medallist Bernal defeated her 147-142 in the Copa Merengue final.

With one win against her already this summer, the 22-year-old would have known more than anyone that denting Becerra’s cloak of invincibility in Nanjing was possible. To still achieve the feat on such a big stage, against the in-form archer of the year and at her first Archery World Cup Final, deserves accolades. Doing it in a shootoff was just the icing on the cake.

1. Emircan Haney, Türkiye 

What pips Haney just slightly to number one are all three of his opponents in Nanjing, particularly his semifinal meeting against Mike Schloesser. Before Nanjing, ’Mister Perfect’ had beaten the Turkish compounder in all three of their previous meetings, the most recent at Madrid – the fourth stage of the 2025 circuit.

At 147-147, a shoot-off stood between the widely expected Schloesser versus Mathias Fullerton gold medal match, as Haney had already knocked out reigning World Archery Champion Nicolas Girard. Haney’s 10 nestled just left of the X-ring, while Schloesser’s landed on the upper 10 line. He then shot near perfection against the new world number one Fullerton (149-148) to be crowned Türkiye’s second compound Archery World Cup Champion – after Demir Elmaagacli at Mexico City 2015 – capping a stunning afternoon session.

Girard, Schloesser, Fullerton – the world’s top three – all put away by one of the tournament’s outside favourites. After bronze in Antalya and silver in Madrid, Emircan Haney truly announced himself to the archery world on Saturday. Could a string of major honours be coming, just as fellow Turkish archer Mete Gazoz achieved in recurve following Tokyo 2020?