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Preview: European Para Archery Championships features first major VI competition since Gwangju 2025

26 avril 2026

Rome, Italy

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Europe's top para archers are heading to Italy for the Rome 2026 European Para Archery Championships. The event has a history going back to 2006, and features a VI competition, the first major event in that discipline since the Gwangju 2025 World Archery Para Championships last year.

The worlds saw Cyprus’s Christos Misos beat Belgium’s Ruben Vanhollebeke for the VI 1 title, and Nicholas Thomas of Great Britain defeat Kathleen Meurrens of Belgium for the VI 2/3 title. All four of those athletes will be competing in Rome, and Vanhollebeke has twice won this title before, in 2024 and 2022. Can he make it a hat-trick?

Other well-known competitors appearing across the disciplines include Elisabetta Mijno, Tereza Brandtlova, David Drahoninsky, Guillaume Toucoullet, Jessica Stretton, Oznur Cure Girdi, Stefano Travisani, and Ziva Lavrinc. Mijno, still the world number one, has won this title four times and will be keen for a fifth after a disappointing Gwangju.

Rome is a familiar destination for the athletes; it's the third time the competition has been held in the city and last year the Rome 2025 European Para Archery Cup Leg 1 was also held at the same venue, with many of the top athletes and medallists from that competition returning here.

The finals will be held at the historic Nando Martellini athletics stadium, next to the Colosseum – an interesting, picturesque and very central display for the sport.

Key information

What’s happening? The European Para Archery Championships, held in Rome, Italy – the city built, of course, on seven hills and a familiar para archery destination.

What’s at stake? Titles in individual events across recurve, compound, W1 and VI.

Who’s competing? A total of 129 competitors representing 26 nations.

What’s the story? Italian pride arguably took a battering last year in Gwangju, with just a single title for Stefano Travisani in recurve men. A full strength Italian home team will be targeting more than one gold medal at this outing.