Who poses the biggest threat to defending champion Brady Ellison?

As ever, there were incredible scenes last year in Nanjing when Brady Ellison won his sixth Hyundai Archery World Cup Final to become the circuit’s leading gold medallist in recurve men as he beat Marcus D’Almeida.

His roar and fist pump at the end signified that, despite his incredible longevity at this level in the sport, there is no lack of fire for him to keep stacking those medals up.

Although he is not one of the top seeds in this year’s draw at the Saltillo 2026 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final – which will be held next Thursday – many will still back the US archer to go all the way once again.

He has had no major international distractions coming up to this, unlike some of the European and Asian athletes competing or preparing for their continental events – namely the Taranto 2026 Mediterranean Games and the 20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026.

Saltillo will have been his only focus, therefore, for the rest of the outdoor season, which draws to a close for everyone – bar Asia – but can any of the other seven archers flying to Mexico deny a tunnel-visioned Ellison – the only one in the list to have won the Final before – his seventh trophy?

Scroll down below to see who could take the recurve men’s crown next week.

The recurve men’s final in Saltillo starts at 10h00 local time on Sunday 13 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.

• Mete Gazoz, Türkiye (stage winner)
• Dhiraj Bommadevara, India (stage winner)
• Brady Ellison, USA (stage winner and world number two)
• Junya Nakanishi, Japan
• Matias Grande, Mexico (host nation)
• Mauro Nespoli, Italy
• Berkim Tumer, Türkiye
• Jean-Charles Valladont, France

Bold prediction

Whilst Ellison may be the only one in Saltillo who knows what winning that coveted trophy and CHF 30,000 feels like, there are seven others who are still searching for the sensation, two of whom have come as close as you possibly could.

These are the other elder statesmen, if you will, of the list in France’s Jean-Charles Valladont – 37 years old – and Italy’s Mauro Nespoli – 38 years old.

Funnily enough, Nespoli’s sole experience as one of the last two recurve men standing was at the Moscow 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final against Ellison, where the US archer defeated him 6-2.

The last time these two met, though, the Italian got the better of the world number two at the Hermosillo 2023 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final – returning the favour with a 6-2 win of his own – so it is not a guarantee that Moscow will be repeated.

2026 has also been a marked improvement for Nespoli from last season, with a higher arrow average, a 78 per cent win percentage compared to 2025’s 33 per cent, and three individual medals with silvers at the 14th Conquest Cup, the European Outdoor Championships and the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Madrid. In 2025, he didn’t find himself on any international podium individually at 70 metres.

Both he and Valladont will also be heading into Saltillo fresh, with neither having competed at the Taranto 2026 Mediterranean Games. They are actually two of the replacements for Li Mengqi – the Shanghai 2026 Hyundai Archery World Cup winner – Tang Chih-Chun and Kim Je Deok, who are busying themselves with the Asian Games, with Türkiye’s Berkim Tumer the third substitute.

Japan’s Junya Nakanishi and India’s Dhiraj Bommadevara, though, will still be going to the international circuit’s ultimatum despite also going to Aichi-Nagoya just two weeks after Saltillo ends.

The latter has had arguably his best season to date due to his victory at the Antalya 2026 Hyundai Archery World Cup, which booked him onto his third World Cup Final.

It was the first time the 24-year-old athlete climbed the top podium at any stage he’s competed at, and the tears at the end of beating Lee Woo Seok would never have come out of someone who hasn’t worked hard to get to this level of the sport, but also his family.

He very emotionally credited his mother in particular in the post-match interview for pawning jewellery just so he could be helped with equipment costs in his first years as an archer, and winning what would be his biggest accolade would be even more special for him than his unforgettable day in Türkiye in June.

Mete Gazoz – the Berlin 2023 Hyundai World Archery Championships, Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and Essen 2024 European Archery champion – is another obvious name not to ignore, especially considering the World Cup trophy is the only major he is yet to claim.