Schloesser, Becerra lead compound qualification at 2025 World Games

Mike Schloesser and Andrea Becerra have seeded top of the men’s and women’s fields after compound qualification concluded this morning at the Chengdu 2025 World Games. 

Schloesser, still looking for his first World Games title and after an up-and-down season during which he became a father for the first time, scored 715.

In the expected very hot and humid conditions, the Dutchman edged out Denmark’s Mathias Fullerton by one point (714), with Austria’s Nico Wiener in third (713).

“I think I managed well and I’m really happy with it. And it just felt really good,” said Mike. “The mistakes I made were really close to the line, so I’m really confident going into the next couple of days.”

“The humidity is crazy here and... the temperature got you mentally as well. You needed to aim off sometimes and you needed to be very alert. But it’s for the same for everybody.”

Despite winning every major title available – some of them several times – this is Mike’s third attempt at an elusive World Games gold medal. Last time out, at Birmingham 2022, he was beaten by Abhishek Verma in the quarterfinals. 

“Of course the World Games is kind of something that’s been eluding me but we’ll see. I’m shooting well and I’m having fun and we’ll see. I’m confident in it but there are a lot of good archers here,” said the 31-year-old. 

Mexico’s Andrea Becerra would end up on top of the women’s list with 706 points, just ahead of the USA’s Alexis Ruiz in second and Madhura Dhamangaonkar of India in third, both on 705. 

“I’m really happy with how I managed today,” said Becerra, the individual winner at the first stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Central Florida this year. “Hopefully, tomorrow and the day after will be just as good or hopefully better, and I’m feeling really good. We want to be on the podium, so we’re looking forward to that.” 

“The weather has been really challenging, we’re sweating all over; the face, the hands, everything becomes a little bit slippery. But we’re making the best of it, we feel prepared and no matter the weather we will still going to try our best,” she added.

Defending champion Ella Gibson did not have a good session, finishing in ninth spot with 699. The placing means she will have to shoot an extra match tomorrow against Namibia’s Elisabeth Taljaard.

It’s not the usual international ranking spot we expect to see world number one Gibson in, although it should be noted she also finished in ninth place in the ranking round at the Birmingham 2022 World Games, and with the same score, 699 – the tournament she went on to win. 

India’s Madhura Dhamangaonkar, winner of the World Cup stage in Shanghai earlier this year, was leading the women’s field for much of the afternoon but fell away in the last couple of ends.

However, her third place score of 705 along with Verma’s fifth place puts India in pole position of the eight teams in the mixed team competition on Friday, where they will face a young Korean pair in the first round.

Competition at the World Games continues with compound eliminations on Friday morning, followed by the mixed team finals.

You can watch this and all finals from this week on archery+.