Chabouk – who has been at the federation for 10 years – admitted his “surprise” at the outcome in Gwangju but also felt it was a “matter of time”, considering the measures he and others have implemented in Spanish archery, despite it being the first season in eight that longtime coach Elias Cuesta was not there.
“I spoke with Carlos Morillo, the sports manager of the nation, and with Elias leaving, he was working with them since January,” said Chabouk. “He told me, ‘Forget about March, April, May. In September, we’ll talk about it.’ I said, ‘Okay, no more questions.’ Then, after one year, I said, ‘You were right, man.’
“Two gold medals in a world championship – never happened. Good job. Now’s the time to see if it was just good luck or because of what we’ve been doing.”
Whether it was fortune or not, Canales and Temiño Mediel’s progression reflects Spain’s sharp focus on its youth setup.
In the early days of working together, Chabouk, president Vicente Martinez Orga and Morillo created a programme for the country’s youth archers after discovering that, at one stage, over 50% of Spain’s licensed archers were older than 50.
The leadership in Madrid realised that the lack of long-term longevity meant results like Miguel Alvarino Garcia winning the Mexico City 2015 Archery World Cup Final would happen once in a blue moon.
“We started in 2016 a national programme for the development of archery, working with the regional federations and the biggest clubs to have five or six camps a year for young, talented archers and their coaches – especially as the level of coaching was not that high in Spain,” revealed Chabouk.
“Starting with high-level coaches working with these young archers, we’ve been getting more and more young archers and since 2017, I can say that 90% of national champions are below 21 years old.”
Focusing on youngsters has been a way of maximising the limited income the Spanish federation receives each year – with 65% coming from government funding and 35% from its own resources such as licences and registration fees – as well as taking inspiration from Yusuf Goktug Ergin’s successful programme in Türkiye, which established four annual competitions for under-14s, 15s, 18s and 21s.
It’s working. Of the 21,952 licensed archers in Spain for 2024-25, 46.6% are under 50, with just under 16% below 21.
Another vital cog in the machine has been creating a second performance centre – once again, specifically for youth archers to train.
