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Türkiye beat USA in compound men and women team trilogy at Shanghai

9 May 2026

Shanghai, China

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It was Türkiye's day in the compound team medal matches as they won the triple head-to-head against the USA at Shanghai — stage two of the 2026 Hyundai Archery World Cup.

Hazal Burun, Defne Cakmak and Emine Rabia Oguz began strongly by overcoming the compound women's team world number three-ranked side in a topsy-turvy match that exchanged leads right up until the final fourth end to win their first gold together as a team.

Emircan Haney, Batuhan Akcaoglu and Yagiz Sezgin followed suit against the new-look American compound men team of James Lutz, Louis Price and Gaius Carter, 234-231, with Shanghai being the Turkish contingent's seventh World Cup together, paying experience-worthy dividends.

Alexis Ruiz — who is shooting this afternoon in the individual women event — and 2024 champion Lutz did respond, however, in the mixed team gold match, edging long-time rivals Burun and Haney 157-154 and denying a Turkish clean sweep.

“It was a great day, we competed very well in both teams,” said Burun, who was a part of Türkiye's Essen 2024 winning team. “We had a loss in the mixed team, but we did our best. We are working for this and we will continue to work. We finished the competition very well, and now we will prepare even better for the upcoming competitions, addressing our shortcomings and working even harder.”

“We put a lot of effort into this, and for a long time we have been working together to address our shortcomings. Therefore, I think we will be even better in the future, and I can say that we are a really good team and we have a very good understanding.”

The same result for an extremely proud country, but the victories have two different meanings for Türkiye's men's and women's teams.

In Hazal and her teammates' case, shooting at a stage final on archery's premier international circuit were all completely new feelings, and perhaps their rawness and excitement at simply being there — with all three archers in their early twenties — helped them not to overcomplicate proceedings.

For Akçaoglu, Sezgin, and Haney, however, they have been in winning situations aplenty, but until today had come up short.

They most recently became compound men's team runners-up at Puebla — stage one — which was their fourth silver medal at a World Cup together, one of which came against the USA at Yecheon 2024 where they lost 233-235.

But on a beautifully bright morning at the Riverside Financial Plaza nestled deep in Shanghai's Pudong area, the narrative changed as it was they who held onto their nerve, tying scores with Lutz, Carter, and Price up until the final fourth end before the latter two dropped two nines and an eight, whilst Türkiye strung together a formidable 59 to triumph 234-231.

Victory at last.

“It's the perfect feeling, perfect atmosphere here taking the gold in the World Cup Stage Two in Shanghai,” exclaimed a gleaming Akçaoglu, who as first shooter dropped five 10s. “Last year we took a silver medal in the men's team [at Antalya 2025], and now here we are. We were prepared, we were ready and took the gold.”

“The conditions are windy... it's tricky wind out there. The match was really close. Our opponent is really strong, but we are also strong.”

Competition in Shanghai continues with the compound individual finals in the afternoon.