A beginner’s guide to archery at the Chengdu 2025 World Games

WORLD GAMES 2022

The 2025 World Games, one of the premier multisport events in the world, gets underway this week in Chengdu, China. As always, the focus is on sports and disciplines that are not part of the Olympic Games. 

The first archery competitions at this were all-field affairs, before the compound event was changed to target archery in 2013. The World Games has become the premier international event both for compound target and recurve and barebow field. It’s really the equivalent of the Olympics for those disciplines.

(And widely regarded as a critical stepping stone to Olympic recognition; see: compound!)

Normally held every four years, it’s only been three years since the last competition in Birmingham in 2022, after it was delayed for a year due to the pandemic.

There is just one team event – mixed team compound – and six individual titles. 

Chengdu 2025 will have a full opening ceremony on 7 August at the Tianfu International Convention Centre in which several archers are expected to participate as flagbearers for their country.

The full line-up of entrants was announced last week. Only three nations – Australia, Italy, and host China – have an archer or team in all seven competitions. 

All the individual and team defending champions from the Birmingham 2022 World Games will be returning bar two: Mexico’s Miguel Becerra who won the men's compound title, and Sara Lopez of Colombia, part of the mixed team that won gold and the runner up in the individual event.

Lopez has withdrawn at the last minute, although her Colombian teammate Alejandra Usquiano will be competing in individual and mixed team. Mexico’s compound men will be ably represented by 2024 Pan American champion Sebastian Garcia.

You can watch extended coverage of the event on archery+

Key information

What’s happening? The 12th edition of the World Games on 6-17 August 2025 in Chengdu (China), with the archery competitions stretching across 7-16 August. Chengdu supposedly holds the title of China’s ‘happiest city’.

Where is it? All events will be held at Qinglong Lake Park, a little to the east of the centre of Chengdu. Once again, the field finals will have a water setting. 

What’s at stake? The title of World Games Champion. There are seven events in total: three for compound, and two each for recurve and barebow. 

What’s the story? The World Games is indisputably the ultimate stage for barebow and recurve specialists in field archery, as well as compound athletes in target competition. And with the LA28 Olympic Games inching ever closer, eyes will be on the mixed team compound competition like never before. 

Gibson winning World Games 2022

Defending champions

You can also view full results from the Birmingham 2022 World Games. 

Schedule

A full updated schedule is available on the event’s website

  • Thursday 7 August – Compound qualifying
  • Friday 8 August – Compound eliminations (top eight) and compound mixed team finals
  • Saturday 9 August – Compound finals
  • Monday 11 August – Recurve qualification
  • Tuesday 12 August – Recurve eliminations
  • Wednesday 13 August – Recurve finals
  • Thursday 14 August – Barebow qualification
  • Friday 15 August – Barebow eliminations
  • Saturday 16 August – Barebow finals

Stories to watch

1) A sticky situation. Even to archers used to summer competition outdoors, Chengdu’s hot and humid weather will be challenging.

Temperatures have hit a worrying 39°C in the build up to the opening ceremony. The forecast is for average temperatures over 32°C but the average humidity is often north of 70% – and can top 80% in the mornings, so it will feel much, much hotter.

Some archers, including Great Britain’s Ella Gibson, have taken to saunas to help prepare and acclimatise. 

2) Italian triple? At Birmingham 2022, Cinzia Noziglia successfully defended her title from five years previously in Wroclaw on finals day, becoming the first woman to win two World Games barebow titles.

Can she make it three in a row? It wouldn’t be a shock.

3) Swedish quad? Renowned barebow archer Erik Jonsson, won in 2001, 2005 and 2022, matching the title total of his equally legendary compound compatriot Morgan Lundin.

Jonsson returns to Chengdu to try and take an unprecedented fourth title – a World Games first. 

4) Ella Gibson. In one of the great rivalries in archery, Gibson got the better of Sara Lopez in Birmingham to take her maiden title at the competition in 2022; just one of several titanic battles we have seen the two contest.

But with Lopez forced to withdraw at the last moment, Gibson is the favourite again – although Andrea Becerra might have something to say about that. Two in a row? It could be. 

5) The USA. A nation previously very successful in these Games, two athletes from the USA withdrew at short notice and the delegation is notably missing Brady Ellison, the USA’s most successful field recurve archer – in the one competition he has never won. Is a new star going to emerge? Maybe. 

6) Mixed team compound. This is the biggest global multisport event where we will see compound mixed team target contested before LA28 sees the discipline and the bow make its Olympic debut.

All eyes will be on the final stages of this competition.

7) New faces. The field section of the competition will see some new target faces tested in order to boost visibility of arrows of the face, to improve the experience for a TV audience. It will be interesting to see what the athletes make of it. 

BB World Games 2022

The line-up

These are the nations that will compete for each of the seven gold medals available. The full list of entries was announced last week.

Compound men: Australia, Austria, China, Colombia, Denmark, France, Guatemala, India, Israel, Italy, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Slovakia, South Africa, Türkiye and USA.

Compound women: Australia, China, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Great Britain, India, Italy, Kazakhstan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Namibia, South Africa, Türkiye and USA.

Recurve men: Australia, Belgium, China, Croatia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Slovenia and USA.

Recurve women: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Barebow men: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Sweden and USA.

Barebow women: Argentina, Australia, Austria, China, France, Germany, Italy, Romania, Spain, Sweden and USA.

Mikey World Games

Disciplines

Compound archers at the World Games compete in the discipline of target archeryRecurve and barebow archers at the World Games compete in the discipline of field archery.

Target archery is the discipline of shooting at stationary circular targets set at specific distances. Compound archers at the World Games compete over a distance of 50 metres at targets measuring 80 centimetres in diameter.

Competition has two phases: qualification, in which compound archers shoot 72 arrows for total score to earn a seeding, and matchplay, where athletes compete in head-to-head eliminations. Individual matches are decided on total score over 15 arrows and mixed team matches over 16 arrows.

Field archery is the discipline of shooting at stationary circular targets of different sizes set at varying distances, heights and angles around a course of natural terrain.

Competition has three phases: qualification, in which archers shoot a course of 12 marked and 12 unmarked* targets set at distances between five and 60 metres to earn a seeding, shoot-up eliminations, in which athletes are divided into two sudden-death matchplay pools. The winners of the two pools join the top two seeds in the semifinals. Matches in the pools are decided over six marked targets while matches in the semifinals and finals use four marked targets.

Tied matches in both target archery and field archery are decided in single-arrow shoot-offs.

*Athletes are not given the distance of the target.

Targets

The types of target used for the target archery and field archery at the World Games are distinctly different.

Target archery uses a traditional five-colour 10-ring archery target – hence the name of the discipline – which measures 80 centimetres in diameter. The inner yellow rings score 10 and nine points, red rings score eight and seven points, blue rings score six and five points, black rings score four and three points, and outer white rings score two and one points. The 10-ring measures just eight centimetres in diameter.

Due to the accuracy of elite compound archers, the black and white rings are removed for international competition.

Field archery normally uses black and yellow targets set around a course of natural terrain (similar to golf). The targets can measure 80, 60, 40 or 20 centimetres in diameter, depending on the distance at which they are set, and have six rings. The inner rings score six and five points, and the outer rings score four to one points. 

For this competition only, the targets have been changed to yellow-teal rather than yellow-black. More details here. 

Recurve archers shoot targets set at distances between 10 and 60 metres, while barebow archers shoot targets set at distances between five and 50 metres.

Recurve World Games 2022

Equipment

Archers competing at the World Games use a compound bow, recurve bow or barebow. Compound archers compete in the discipline of target archery, while recurve and barebow archers compete in the discipline of field archery.

The compound bow was invented in the 1960s as a more mechanically efficient piece of archery equipment. The design uses a levering system of pulleys and cables, making it faster and decidedly more accurate than other types of bow. Archers also use mechanical release aids and magnified sights. Compound has featured at the World Games since 1993, two years before the bow was added to the World Archery Championships, and the competition was moved from the discipline of field archery to target archery in 2013.

The recurve bow is the modern evolution of traditional bows that have existed for 1000s of years. The limbs positioned at the top and bottom of the bow curve back away from the archer at each tip. This is what gives the ‘re-curve’ its name. Recurve has been the bowstyle used at the Olympic Games since archery’s reintroduction to the programme in 1972.

The barebow is a basic style of recurve bow, which uses the same modern materials but does not permit accessories to aid in aiming or stabilisation. Barebow was included on the programme of the first World Archery Field Championships in 1969 and has featured (alongside recurve) on the programme of the World Games since 1985.

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