Oliver Hicks targets Yankton after another world record

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT is presented by WIAWIS.

On 16 August 2026, Great Britain’s Oliver Hicks broke yet another world record in the double 72-arrow 50-metre round at Andover Archery Club in Hampshire.

Hicks, now 19 years old, shot 1328, adding five points to his own under-21 world record.

It wasn’t even close to his first time at the world-record rodeo. He set the 50-metre senior world record for the single 72-arrow round back in 2022 – aged just 15 – and now holds all the under-18 and under-21 records available, most recently breaking the mixed team record alongside Evie Finnegan.

The score exactly matches the senior men’s record set by John Demmer III in 2020 – which, make no mistake, was the target Hicks was after and has attempted to beat at every opportunity.

What is it like to come so close to beating a world record you’ve been chasing for so long?

“I’ve been trying to get this for years. Normally it’s best when I don’t realise!”

“When I got the senior single record, I didn’t realise what score I needed to get the senior record until I’d shot it. I then looked at my scorecard and I was like, ‘Oh, 673,’” he smiled.

The situation in Andover was very different.

“I had a dozen arrows to go. I started that dozen with a 52, so I knew I’d need 55 for the last end.”

“So I started off with a seven. And then two nines. So I needed two 10s to finish, so I knew this as I was shooting it, which probably wasn’t helpful. I shot my first one in the 10 and then the second one was just out of the 10 in the nine. I’ve been wanting it for ages and this was the best opportunity I had.”

Along with fellow barebow Brit Sarah Hubbard, Hicks has sent records tumbling and definitively established Great Britain as one of the key world centres of barebow archery, alongside the longstanding powerhouses of Italy, Sweden and the USA.

While he may dominate 50-metre target, for the world’s elite barebow archers all eyes are on the upcoming Yankton 2026 World Archery Field Championships.

Hicks, along with James Annall, will be Great Britain’s barebow representatives, as they were at the last championships in Lac La Biche in 2024, with Annall once again in the senior ranks and Hicks in the under-21 division.

Indeed, we caught up with Oliver at the Sunset Challenge in August 2026, held on a notoriously steep and challenging mixed field course in Britain’s Midlands that several elite field and 3D athletes were using as a warm-up for the upcoming worlds in Yankton.

“Field’s my favourite,” said Ollie. “I just love field. It’s just more interesting. Every target’s different and round the course, like here at Sunset, none of it’s flat, it’s all interesting. You’ve got to think about it all. I much prefer that to shooting another six arrows at this target again.”

“And I really like the people at field. Everyone’s so friendly and gives advice.”

Hicks won the Sunset competition with a score of 693 – six points better than his qualification score at the last worlds, where he took a silver medal in the barebow under-21 men’s competition behind Ludvig Rohlin of Sweden.

“I was struggling that year. Mentally, shooting for me, it wasn’t my best year, so I was really pleased to come away with silver,” he said.  

It would not be the last final between the pair, with Hicks and Rohlin meeting again in the under-21 final of the Walbrzych-Ksiaz 2025 European Field Championships, and – back on a 50-metre target – at the Rome 2026 European Youth Championships.

It’s not entirely unlikely that the final in Yankton will see them battle it out again – even if Hicks politely didn’t mention he won the last two encounters.

“It’s a nice competition between us. We both try and bring out the best in each other and try to shoot as well as we can.”

The rise in the number of barebow archers – very much including Great Britain – worldwide is parallel with the higher profile status of field competitions, with an increased focus on the discipline around its ‘majors’.

“Previously, the only discipline that barebow was natively recognised by World Archery is field and 3D, so that’s where a lot of barebow archers focus their attention. Hopefully it will keep growing, because field’s some of the best archery and the most fun. And it challenges you in so many ways that a target range can’t,” said Hicks.

The rise in barebow archery has gone, of course, hand in hand with the rise of the internet and social media, with information shared worldwide and a culture of helping and sharing technique from the elite level down. But it remains a discipline that demands both self-reliance and a problem-solving mentality.

One of the biggest differences between barebow and elite recurve competition is the lack of formal coaching input. There are almost no barebow-specific coaches in Great Britain and precious few worldwide.

Hicks does not, and never has had, a coach.

“I do a lot of video delay, looking at what my form looks like and then watching other people shoot and picking up the bits that I like from their shooting and trying to put them into my form – and the bits that I don’t like I can skip out.”

After Yankton, Hicks intends to compete on the indoor circuit, building up to the Lancaster Archery Classic in January 2027, now drawing the largest indoor barebow field in the world.

Hicks will be defending the title he won earlier this year, holding his own and maintaining focus for multiple matches on the stage in the unique winner-stays-on format.

“It’s great fun and it’s a great atmosphere with all the people. I think last year was 250+ barebows.”

“It’s just everyone’s together and having fun and shooting arrows.”

Sunset Challenge images courtesy of Peter Hughes.