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USA's Stephan Hansen in first final four since swtching nations at Puebla 2026

10 avril 2026

Puebla, Mexico

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Stephan Hansen made it a memorable return to the World Cup as he secured a place in the compound men final fours at Puebla - the first stage of the 2026 season.

His appearance in Mexico this week was his first on archery's premier international circuit since Paris 2023 and the last time the Indoor World Series silver medallist reached the semifinals was at Salt Lake City 2018, which he eventually went on to win.

Eight years is a long time in archery however, with Hansen back then representing his birth country Denmark. Now, he is a member of the USA team since his switch was confirmed in October.

He is the only American to shoot in tomorrow's compound individual semifinals as well.

“I didn't have a lot of time to get fully ready because of Vegas, but it was the same for pretty much everybody,” said Hansen, who defeated world number one Mike Schloesser via shoot-off at Parque del Arte before dropping a near perfect 149 against François Dubois in the following 1/4 round. “It's fun to be back and fun to compete again in these things. I missed it a little bit. I always have a lot of respect for Mike.”

“We have been shooting against each other for I don't even know how long. I was lucky to beat him in Nimes, the last time we shot there with good scores but we have been competing against each other forever.”

“The first match was hard too. Robin [Jaatma] shot really good, he had way more Xs than me but I had to clean it to beat him and with Mike, I dropped one early and then he gave me one back and then the shoot-off was a little windy for both of us.”

“It's one of the guys that it always feels better to beat because he's number one right now, it's pretty satisfying,” he added.

Stephan Hansen with a thumbs up next to his winning target face at Puebla 2026.

Whilst Schloesser has remained compound's “Mister Perfect” the last year by winning some of the many competitions such as the recent Vegas Shoot and Chengdu 2025 World Games - even with the distraction of being a new father - Hansen has been “Mister Consistent” this indoor season.

In an impressive five month stretch, the 30 year old athlete won silver in the GT Open followed by gold at Nimes and then made it to the championship shootdown at Vegas coming fifth and finishing only behind Schloesser in the overall Indoor World Series rankings.

Hansen hasn't stopped shooting at 50 metres in his absence from the World Cups though, but admitted he has missed being a part of the highs and lows the international premier circuit brings.

“I just didn't really want to travel too much. Being on a team is cool sometimes and because of the last couple of years, I've just done my own thing,” he explained when asked why he decided to step back. “I didn't have any responsibilities for anybody. My sponsor, Matthews, have helped me out a lot and they have been able to support me so I could do that by myself.”

“Being part of the team is kind of different because you have coaches and all of these things but it's fun to hang out with other people and go to see the foreigners.”

“I used to shoot for Denmark, so it's kind of weird to not shoot for them but I made a decision, you've got to stick with it.”

It could yet be a former Danish derby come the gold medal match should Hansen defeat Puebla's number one seed Nico Wiener and Gwangju 2025 runner-up Mathias Fullerton overcome Tim Jevsnik.

Competition at Parque del Arte is now over as action in Puebla moves to Zócalo de Puebla for the event's finals beginning tomorrow morning with compound team gold matches.