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Matias Grande, Andrea Becerra lead qualification at Santo Domingo 2026

25 July 2026

Santo Domingo

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Mexico and Colombia shared the honours on the opening day of archery competition at the Santo Domingo 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games, claiming the top seeds across the qualification rounds at Parque del Este Archery Range on Friday.

Olympic quarter-finalist Matías Grande led the recurve men's qualification with 672, edging Cuba's Hugo Franco by a single point after the 72-arrow ranking round. Fellow Mexican Francisco Padilla completed the top three with 660 as Mexico also secured the number one seed in the recurve men's team event ahead of Colombia and Venezuela.

The recurve women's competition produced one of the standout performances of the day as Colombia's four-time Olympian Ana Maria Rendon shot a Games-record 665 to top the standings. Defending champion Alejandra Valencia Trujillo, who held the lead after the opening 36 arrows, finished second on 661, while teammate Angela Ruiz Rosales claimed third with 659.

Mexico continued its strong start by topping both the recurve women's team and recurve mixed team rankings, with Valencia joining Grande to secure the number one mixed team seed.

In compound events, world number one Andrea Maya Becerra Arizaga produced the highest score of the day. The Mexican shot a Games-record 709 to finish first in the women's qualification, one point ahead of Colombia's Alejandra Usquiano. Defending champion Dafne Quintero completed the top three with 700, as Mexico also set a Games record of 2106 to claim the top seed in the compound women's team event.

Colombia responded in the compound men's competition through Pablo Gomez Zuluaga, whose 707 secured the top seed. Puerto Rico's Jean Pizarro Latorre finished second on 704, with Mexico's Sebastian Garcia Flores taking third after also shooting 704. Rodrigo Gonzalez De Alba, another Mexican, also shot 704 but finished fourth after losing the tiebreak on X-count.

Gomez also teamed up with Usquiano to lead Colombia to the top of the compound mixed team standings, while Colombia secured the number one seed in the compound men's team event.

Mexico finished qualification atop four of the six team events, while Colombia claimed the remaining two, setting up an intriguing battle between the region's traditional powerhouses as the eliminations get underway.

Competition resumes on Saturday with the recurve team finals and compound individual eliminations before continuing on Sunday with the compound team finals and recurve individual eliminations.