The biannual para archery worlds, as always, threw up some great battles: passion, emotion and achievement right there on the stage.
China, as expected, dominated the medal table with 12 medals overall, six of them gold, with Zhang Tianxin taking three of those. Yet the nation also lost several high-profile matches, and you got the feeling they wouldn’t be collectively walking away entirely happy.
The biggest breakthrough? A Mongolian recurve effort that took two team golds – both featuring Demberel Selengee – after the nation’s previous best was a single world team bronze. It propelled Mongolia to an astonishing third in the medal table, above Türkiye, Korea, Czechia, Italy and the USA. Quite the weekend’s work.
Below are the three individual performances that surprised and delighted us the most in Gwangju.
3. Wu Chunyan
While Wu Chunyan hasn’t quite fully dominated her era – often spending just a little too much of it in the shadow of Zahra Nemati, the three-time Paralympic Champion from Iran – in Gwangju she achieved something unique in the history of para archery.
No one had ever won four world titles with the same bow until Wu did so on Sunday, delivering possibly the finest performance of the day: composed, relentless, and using all her experience to overcome her much younger teammate.
Not everything went her way (she lost two team semifinals), but she won every finals match she entered and gleefully punished opponent errors. The reigning Paralympic Champion now has eight para world gold medals – more than any other archer. Only the Asian Para Championships remain for her to complete the set.
The queen is most definitely still on her throne.
2. Sheetal Devi
Devi took down her second major in Gwangju, after her win at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Para Games, beating reigning World and Paralympic Champion Oznur Cure Girdi for the compound title.
Well-known for being inspired by and the protege of Matt Stutzman, Devi is already going someway to match his achievements – not just on finals fields, but in inspiring and motivating others to push past boundaries. (Her opponent in the final is no slouch in that department either).
“Never be afraid in any situation. Don’t accept failure too easily — always put in a lot of effort. If we accept failure early, we won’t be able to achieve much in life. Success isn’t only about winning medals. Even if we don’t win a medal, we would have still learnt something valuable from the experience,” she told the Times of India.
Once dreaming of becoming a teacher, Devi now seems destined for anything – Paralympic gold, or perhaps even politics?
1. Kim Ok Geum
Age is just a number, but in Kim Ok Geum’s case, it makes her achievement all the more remarkable. The 65-year-old world number three in women’s W1, who spent most of her career in compound, won her first world gold at Gwangju in the women’s doubles team event with Lee Eunhee, on home soil, and one splashed widely across Korean media.
Kim only began archery in her fifties, yet an unprecedented willingness to work and compete at the very highest level has led her to multiple team and individual medals ever since her international debut in 2014, including a Paralympic silver team medal. She placed fourth in Paris 2024, competing as one of the oldest Paralympians.
It goes to show that attitude is everything in sport.
“It’s my first gold medal at the World Championships, so it’s even more precious, and I was moved to tears during the awards ceremony as I remembered the difficult training I went through," she told Korean news.
“It was especially encouraging that the mayor and the sports association staff came to cheer me on. I will do my best to achieve good results at the 2026 Nagoya Asian Games.”
Not finished yet. Just getting started.
