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Martin Damsbo returns to final fours after 10 year absence at Shanghai 2026

8 May 2026

Shanghai, China

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Martin Damsbo ended a 10-year individual medal drought at World Cups to reach the compound men final four at Shanghai 2026 - stage two of the 2026 circuit.

The Paris 2013 Archery World Cup Final champion - who has represented Denmark every year on archery’s premier international circuit since the opening season in 2006 - was one of three shoot-off winners in the compound men’s quarter-finals, with Sahil Rajesh Jadhav, Nicolas Girard and Sebastian Garcia Flores progressing to Saturday’s stage. France’s Girard was the sole archer from the discipline to go through via five ends beating Bangladesh's Aishwarzo Rahman 147-145.

Damsbo and Kushal Dalal of India couldn’t be separated at 147 apiece after 15 arrows in an overcast Shanghai and mirrored each other’s scores in three of the five ends, with the former taking the lead in the second end before the latter equalised proceedings in the fourth by shooting a 30 to the Dane’s 29.

“It was a hard day to be old out there today, I think... I feel like it,” said the 40-year-old archer whose 10 in the shootoff was closest to the all important centre spot. “It’s great to be back. We’ve had a lot of team matches, a lot of team medals and medal matches, so we always feel like we haven’t left there. But still, to get a foot in the door to play myself, that’s fine.”

“The level is just so high. It’s not enough to shoot good. You also need to have a little bit of luck. The level these days compared to many years ago... when you shot good before, you won.”

“Here, you need to shoot good and have that little piece of luck to keep going. Even in the shoot-off here, when I shot a good shot, it felt good, and I caught an X-liner, and I’m like, ‘Okay, it at least has the potential to win,’ because the level is normally just pounding them, so I was really happy to see that was enough.”

The result for Damsbo is an achievement a long time in the making, but also one that reflects the factor prioritised most by archers: consistency.

Martin Damsbo posting at the target after winning his quarterfinal at Shanghai 2026.

He is the last of a dying breed: athletes who have been here since World Cup season one, and one of two who were shooting at stage one in Porec 20 years ago - India’s recurve men’s archer Tarundeep Rai the other - that are still regularly competing on the worldwide tour.

Life two decades on has not stopped him competing at the very top of the sport, seeing others in all disciplines come and go due to external or sporting reasons.

Therefore, the 2012 European Championship silver medallist has seen firsthand the growth of the sport, right up until the point where compound will feature for the very first time at an Olympic Games in LA28, with the Danish compound programme receiving funding for it as well which they hadn't prior.

“It’s wrong to say that you always go out to do your best and try to win, but I’m also realistic about competing against full-time shooters, young guys, and the funding that’s starting to kick in everywhere, where you actually have full-time shooters competing, while I still have a full-time job and work.”

“I don’t know, 40 to 80 hours a week, depending, plus shooting, plus coaching, plus everything,” he mentioned when discussing his workload. “I always just try to be the best that I can be and, like I said, take the luck that it gives me, because I know it’s not an even field.”

“There’s people here putting in way more than I’m able to do. I would love to do it, and I used to do it, but just life. So it’s really nice to still be teasing a little bit.”

He will do more than tease his best against today’s younger archers should he get past Garcia Flores and then either Jadhav or Girard in the gold medal match, which would be his first individual World Cup medal in 10 years [Medellin 2016 bronze].

That will take place, however, at the Riverside Financial Plaza for the finals starting tomorrow morning, with the compound team medal matches followed by the individual final fours.