Best of Tlaxcala: Three standout performances from the Pan American Championships

The Tlaxcala 2026 Pan American Championships was the third major international archery event to be held in the Mexican city and produced plenty of memorable performances.

The championships date back more than 50 years, with Mexico hosting the inaugural edition in Acapulco in 1972.

With the early part of the week focused on securing quota places for the Lima 2027 Pan American Games, the team finals were held first, leaving the weekend for the mixed team and individual medal matches.

There were plenty of standout performances, but these three impressed us the most.

A special mention should also go to Mexico’s Alejandra Valencia, who claimed her seventh Pan American Championships gold medal. We will have an interview with her soon.

3. Jennifer Mucino

The 23-year-old Mucino has represented the USA at both the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games, rising through the ranks just in time to earn selection for the delayed Games in Japan.

Born in the USA but raised in Mexico City, she decided to take up archery at the age of nine after watching the 2011 Pan American Games on television.

Since Tokyo, Mucino has become a key member of the Casey Kaufhold-led USA recurve women’s team, helping it collect a string of team gold medals, including that victory over Korea in 2025.

Before Tlaxcala, her best individual international result was bronze at the Medellin 2023 Hyundai Archery World Cup, where she notably defeated China’s superstar Li Jiaman in the quarterfinals.

In Mexico, however, she claimed the first senior outdoor individual title of her career, beating Kaufhold 7-3 in the recurve women’s final.

(Her USA teammate Gaius Carter also took his first individual international title, in the compound men’s competition.)

Perhaps Kaufhold was slightly below her best in Tlaxcala, but that should not detract from the quality of Mucino’s performance on the finals stage. She found the extra gear exactly when she needed it, leaving Mexico with recurve women’s team gold, recurve mixed team silver and her first senior outdoor individual title.

What else does she have in store?

2. Ava Jones

Jones announced herself on the USA barebow scene in 2025 by setting under-21 and under-18 indoor world records.

Earlier this year she added the USA national field title, but, at just 18 years old and competing in her first international tournament, expectations were understandably modest, even taking into account the relatively small barebow field.

She quickly exceeded them.

Jones broke the barebow tournament qualification record with 624 before calmly claiming the first major international title of her career with a 7-3 victory over defending champion Johana Cindy Czako in the gold medal match.

Czako produced another consistent performance, but Jones, with her classical and unfussy technique, delivered ends of 30 and 29 to secure victory.

International barebow continues to grow, and Jones already looks capable of becoming one of its leading names.

1. Marcus D’Almeida

Marcus’s rollercoaster career over the past decade has featured a long list of near misses and dips in form, but he has without question matured into an exceptional athlete. A key moment in that journey came when he won this tournament in Santiago in 2022, paving the way for 11 months as world number one in 2023.

Still, it has been a tricky year by his standards, with three indifferent individual performances at the Hyundai Archery World Cups in Puebla, Shanghai and Antalya – despite finally winning in Antalya last year at his ninth attempt in the city.

“Today when I woke up, I said, ‘It doesn't matter who is next to me, I am going to do my job,’ and I know my level is very high, so I knew I could win,” he said.

In Tlaxcala, he narrowly beat Brady Ellison in a shoot-off, recording only his second victory over the American in six meetings dating back to 2014, before producing a crushing 6-0 win over surprise finalist Eric Peters.

More than the scoreline or even the result, it showed D’Almeida as a different competitor – less rattled by the occasional loose arrow, more clinical and, above all, with far greater trust in himself. It was a joy to watch and could prove the catalyst for another strong run of form for the Brazilian with LA28 beginning to loom.

Much of Marcus’s career has been about trying to fulfil extraordinary early promise without quite managing to do so. The Marcus we are seeing in 2026 looks like there is still plenty left in the tank.