Who will rise highest in Saltillo’s stacked compound men’s field?

If ever there was a way to demonstrate the depth of compound men’s talent around the world at the moment, it would be the category’s line-up at the Saltillo 2026 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final.

From last year’s eight-archer field at Nanjing 2025, only three athletes have managed to book themselves back onto the summit of the sport’s premier international circuit: Mike Schloesser, Mathias Fullerton and Nicolas Girard.

Schloesser and Fullerton’s consistency at the top of the world rankings – Fullerton being number one and Schloesser number two for now – over the past 18 months makes it no surprise that they are back here again, while Girard is the current compound men’s World Archery Champion.

The reigning World Cup champion Emircan Haney, however, did not make it to Mexico, in what is the most glaring omission when comparing the two line-ups.

Instead of Haney and the four others from the class of 2025, however, there is a formidable list of athletes who have raised their game to the next level and – in one archer’s case – are rolling back the years.

In arguably the most competitive Final to date, who will lift the compound men’s Archery World Cup trophy?

Scroll down to find out.

The compound men’s final in Saltillo starts at 10h00 local time on Saturday 12 September.

You can watch the live stream with a subscription to archery+.

Line-up

The top two seeds are listed in bold and will be placed at opposite ends of the bracket. A match draw will determine the positions of the remaining archers.

• Sebastian Garcia Flores, Mexico (stage winner)
• Mike Schloesser, Netherlands (stage winner, world number two)
• Mathias Fullerton, Denmark (stage winner, world number one)
• Nico Wiener, Austria
• Nicolas Girard, France (reigning World Archery Champion)
• Martin Damsbo, Denmark
• Pablo Gomez Zuluaga, Colombia (stage winner)
• Rodrigo Gonzalez De Alba, Mexico

Bold prediction

It almost feels like a prerequisite that Schloesser and Fullerton will at least make the semifinals in Saltillo next month.

Between them, the pair have won either at least one stage or a Final on the circuit since 2023, when the much younger Fullerton burst onto the scene to win Hermosillo 2023.

This season, the Dane booked his ticket to Mexico at the first chance by winning stage one in Puebla, whilst Schloesser secured his 11th appearance at the prestigious competition by grabbing gold at stage three in Antalya 2026.

Yet the top two ranked archers could still face one another before the semifinals, as Sebastian Garcia Flores finished above Fullerton in the World Cup rankings.

Should they be drawn against each other in the first round on Thursday 10 September, what a cracker of an opener that could be.

But whilst the Dutch and Danish archers will be the favourites for many, Garcia Flores was the archer who finished as number one in the compound men’s rankings through his performances in Puebla, Shanghai – which he won – and Antalya.

The 2024 Pan American champion said himself in Puebla that he was in the best form of his life, both on the shooting line and personally, now with Great Britain’s Ella Gibson, who is also vying for gold in the compound women’s category.

Gibson helped Garcia Flores with a new, shorter bow before the season commenced, and it looks to have paid dividends.

He will be especially aiming to end 2026 strongly on home soil in his state of Coahuila – which will inevitably provide plenty of support for him and Mexico’s national pick Rodrigo Gonzalez De Alba.

Fullerton’s Danish teammate Martin Damsbo may have something to say about that. The 41-year-old athlete is a veteran of the circuit, having participated in every single World Cup season since its inception in 2006.

He is, in that respect, a dying breed and is therefore looking to bring back his 2013 form, when he won the Paris 2013 Archery World Cup Final.

The aforementioned Girard is clearly another to watch as the current world champion, as is Austria’s Nico Wiener.