Archery Calendars newsletter

Yankton world championships wrap-up: who won in South Dakota, Aussie gold, and where to watch

Tuesday 27 October 2026

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Hi everyone,

The 2026 World Archery Field Championships and the World Archery 3D Championships were held back to back at the NFAA Easton Yankton Archery Center in Yankton, South Dakota, from late September into early October. The organisers describe it as the first combined event of its kind. World Archery reports 244 field archers from 31 nations and 231 3D archers from 25 nations. Modelled historical weather data (not an official report) suggests it was wet around the field eliminations and finals, and Brady Ellison said he struggled in the rain.

An outdoor archery range at dusk with four round target faces on stands on a lawn, gum trees behind and a green screen at the back
File photo: an outdoor target archery range (Galston Gorge, NSW). Not taken at Yankton.
Photo: 43MZrinyiII, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized for this site. More on the Photo credits page.

FIELD CHAMPIONS

(senior gold medal matches, from the official Results Book, Saturday 26 September)

  • Recurve Men: Florian Unruh (Germany) beat Brady Ellison (USA) 66-65, finishing with a perfect last arrow. The pair have now met ten times, with five wins each.
  • Recurve Women: Casey Kaufhold (USA) beat Audrey Machinet (France) 62-52, her first world title.
  • Compound Men: Mathias Fullerton (Denmark) beat Gaius Carter (USA) 71-70.
  • Compound Women: Ella Gibson (Great Britain) beat Paige Pearce (USA) 69-68.
  • Barebow Men: Giuseppe Seimandi (Italy) beat Erik Jonsson (Sweden) 52-46.
  • Barebow Women: Eleonora Strobbe (Italy) beat Nora Kipferler (Germany) 54-44, her second world field title, 16 years after her first.

FIELD TEAM FINALS

(Sunday 27 September)

  • Men's Team: USA (Gaius Carter, Ryan Davis, Brady Ellison) beat Italy after a shoot-off. The match finished 53-53, and the shoot-off went 17 to 14. Davis opened with a six.
  • Women's Team: USA (Paige Pearce, Erin Hollom, Casey Kaufhold) beat Italy 58-55.
  • Compound Mixed Team: USA (Paige Pearce, Gaius Carter) beat Italy 91-87.
  • Barebow Mixed Team: Italy (Cinzia Noziglia, Matteo Uggeri) beat Germany 67-56. It was Noziglia's 10th World Field medal, across five editions.
  • Recurve Mixed Team: Australia (Alexandra Feeney, Ryan Tyack) beat Italy 78-77.

AN AUSSIE HIGHLIGHT

That last result was the surprise of the day. Alexandra Feeney and Ryan Tyack qualified sixth, beat Great Britain and the USA on the way to the final, then edged the top-seeded Italians by a single point. The semi-final against the USA was settled by a shoot-off. Both were on the podium at the Hobart nationals too, Tyack with silver and Feeney with bronze. May Hu, who won barebow women gold in Hobart, took bronze in the barebow women's final in Yankton (45-43 over Nicky Fairweather), and Nicky and Simon Fairweather took bronze in the barebow mixed team. Australia finished fifth on World Archery's field medal table, which ranks by gold medals, with six medals in all. Italy led it with 16 medals, ahead of the USA with 15 (totals include the under-21 events).

UNDER 21 AUSTRALIANS

Xavier Clark, 20, had a busy week in the under 21 events. In the barebow under 21 men he qualified fifth with 301 and lost the quarter-final 57-59 to Jacob Olmstead (USA), finishing fifth. He then shot the men's under 21 team with Christopher Jackson and Joshua Turner. Seeded second, they went straight into the semi-final and beat the USA 55-54, then lost the gold medal match 58-65 to Great Britain to take silver on Sunday 27 September. Jackson also took bronze in the recurve men at the Hobart nationals. Clark also shot the barebow under 21 mixed team, which finished third of three teams behind Italy and the USA.

3D CHAMPIONS

(individual gold medal matches, Results Book, Saturday 3 October; the team finals were on Friday 2 October)

  • Compound Men: Tim Jevsnik (Slovenia) beat Nico Wiener (Austria) 84-75.
  • Compound Women: Aude Ama-Cormerais (France) beat Ingrid Ronacher (Austria) 72-65.
  • Barebow Men: David Jackson (France) beat Cesar Vera Bringas (Spain) 81-66, his third world 3D title.
  • Barebow Women: Virginie Chevrier (France) beat Rosemarie Leitner (Austria) 57-44.
  • Longbow Men: Mikhail Poddevalin (listed as Russia) beat Robin Gardeur (France) 62-60.
  • Longbow Women: Johanna Pitschmann (Austria), aged 63, beat Cecile Lafaurie (France) 60-39.
  • Traditional Men: Zibrandt Christensen (Denmark) beat Kevin Gheda (Italy) after a 63-63 tie, decided on closest to the centre.
  • Traditional Women: Judith Wenzl (Germany) beat Julie Jones (USA) 60-49.

France topped the 3D medal table with five golds and eight medals, ahead of Austria and Russia on golds.

WATCH THE FINALS

World Archery said before the event that live footage of the field finals on 26 and 27 September would be on archery+ (subscription): https://archery.tv/home/events/A9eiZQ5VVlGv1dwx2By9. World Archery has also posted three full gold medal matches free on its YouTube channel: Unruh v Ellison https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srEbWtVHbKg, Fullerton v Carter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzxDv9KNSsc and Seimandi v Jonsson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qq50zPwNaA. The 3D event was not livestreamed. Full brackets and scorecards are in the official Results Books on the World Archery website.

Congratulations to every archer who made the trip to Yankton, and to the volunteers and judges who kept it all running.

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