Fullerton earns first World Cup top seed of the year in Antalya
Mathias Fullerton claimed his first World Cup top seed of the season after compound men’s qualifying concluded at the third stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Antalya, Türkiye.
The world number two is already guaranteed a place at the World Cup Final in Nanjing later this year, having won gold at Central Florida in April. But he now looks in position to contend for a second stage win on archery’s premier international circuit.
Fullerton dropped 609 in the shortened 60-arrow qualification round – one of several changes being tested at Antalya, alongside as a new-look 11-ring scoring zone. USA’s Curtis Broadnax also scored 609, but Fullerton edged the top seed by shooting one more 11.
“I think it’s a more precise way of scoring and I started out really bad today,” said Fullerton, who was second seed in Florida and fifth in Shanghai last month at the second stage of the season.
“Shooting a lot of 11s can really get you back from those misses, those bad shots because you actually have a lot of points to gain in the round.”
With the 11-ring making its World Cup outdoor debut, the qualification standings in both compound categories shifted dramatically, adding extra tension to the morning’s competition.
Fullerton, for example, leapt nearly 20 places after posting a 65 in one of the 10 six-arrow ends, despite battling wind at the Antalya Centennial Archery Centre. He had opened the round with a seven and an eight.
The new scoring format made even early mistakes costly, punishing even an archer as high of calibre as the Dane – something Fullerton said was “pretty cool”.
“If you shoot really good shots and you hit a lot of 11s, you’re just going to gain so many points, and if you have a bad shot, you’re going to get punished, which is fair.”
“You should never not get punished for a bad shot, and you should never not be rewarded for a good shot,” he added.
Another Florida gold medallist, Andrea Becerra, narrowly missed a hat-trick of 2025 top seeds in the compound women’s category.
The 24-year-old was edged by Korea’s Han Seungyeon, who topped the ranking by hitting the 10-ring 25 times to Becerra’s 23. Both athletes tied on 20 11s.
“I think I was just really trying to do just the same,” replied Becerra, when asked if the 11-ring introduction had any impact. “It happened to me today like when you just try so hard for the 11, that’s when you get just out, so I was just trying to do the same thing, hoping for a good result.”
Recurve qualifying is next up this afternoon at Antalya 2025.
Top seeds: Antalya 2025
Full results on the event page.
Compound men
- Mathias Fullerton, Denmark – 609 (25 11s)
- Curtis Broadnax, USA – 609 (24 11s)
- Tim Jevsnik, Slovenia – 608 (24 11s)
Seventeen archers shot 600+. Top-64 cut at 566.
Compound women
- Han Seungyeon, Korea – 603 (20 11s, 25 10s)
- Andrea Becerra, Mexico – 603 (20 11s, 23 10s)
- Ella Gibson, Great Britain – 602 (20 11s)
Twelve archers shot 590+. There was no top-64 cut.
