Alejandra Usquiano and Nico Wiener shoot best in wind to get career first top seeds at Puebla

Amidst challenging conditions, Alejandra Usquiano managed them better out of the 54 compound women archers as she poled in qualifications at Puebla 2026, the first stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup.

An unpredictable wind at Parque del Arte hindered many of the usual top-ranked archers scores in Mexico today with no one in the compound women category breaking 700.

Usquiano dropped 698 after 72 arrows, getting 23 Xs - also the most of anyone in the women's field - who surprisingly before today had never been a top seed from 31 World Cup stages.

“I’m happy for the classification but I made some errors from the wind,” said the 2026 Indoor World Series silver medallist. “I’m going to stay calm and go forward in each round. At the end, saying that I was classified as the first made me very happy.”

“I think that what helped me was my personal strength, my physical strength, my mental strength and all the time I was calm.”

“The wind was so strong in this location today.”

Much of the news swirling around Colombian archery coming into this week was seeing the return of Sara Lopez back on the circuit after a year out from outdoors action.

The nine-time World Cup champion featured only in Central Florida in 2025 but Usquiano quietly played her part in keeping in line her Colombian teammate's success by winning the South American Open Championships - and silver in the mixed team - bronze in the Copa Merengue, and bronze in the Gwangju 2025 World Archery Championships.  

Let's not forget that Usquiano is also a World Cup winner and denied Lopez a 100 per cent return rate in Finals at Paris 2013.

There is of course only spot per gender per country at the upcoming LA28 Games and although Lopez's legacy suggests she is still the favourite for the Colombian women role - despite her recent inactivity - no doubt Usquiano will make it a tight race up until that point.

Although self-admittedly noticing her rust at Parque del Arte as well as the wind, Yankton 2021 World champion Lopez still seeded high in the sunny afternoon session, getting 696 for third.

“This is my first World Cup in a year, so I felt like a rookie, it felt like my first World Cup ever,” chuckled the compound legend. “I think you’ll see a much better score from me in the next World Cups but still, finishing third is really good, so I have to be grateful for that, especially because the conditions were really difficult.”

Like Usquiano, Nico Wiener had never topped a World Cup field before today.

Austrian Wiener dropped 356 either side of the session to make it 712, tying with Przemyslaw Konecki but he cemented the number one seed with 36 Xs, seven more than the Polish archer.

The Terni 2022 Rinehart World 3D gold medallist only has one World Cup individual medal to his name [Shanghai 2024] despite shooting as one of the top 10 compound men archers for a number of years and is looking forward to carrying his indoor prowess to outdoors in 2026.

“Last year, I won two of the biggest indoor competitions, Nimes and also the Indoor World Series Finals,” said Wiener. “The outdoor season was maybe not like that lucky because maybe the little luck was missing. This time I was trying to shoot in the morning indoors and then at the afternoon outdoors.”

Competition continues in Puebla on Wednesday with compound team eliminations in the morning and recurve qualifying in the afternoon.

Top seeds: Puebla 2026

Full results on the event page.

Compound men

1. Nico Wiener, Austria – 712 [36 Xs]
2. Przemyslaw Konecki, Poland – 712 [29 Xs]
3. Jean Pizarro Latorre, Puerto Rico – 710

Only these three archers shot 710+. There was no top-64 cut.

Compound women

1. Alejandra Usquiano, Colombia – 698
2. Dafne Quintero, Mexico – 697
3. Sara Lopez, Colombia – 696

Fourteen archers shot 690+. There was no top-64 cut.