The archery competition at the 2025 European Para Youth Games in Istanbul got underway on Wednesday with qualification at the Cebeci Sports Complex, the first-ever edition of the sport to be held at the continental Games.
In all three categories – recurve, compound and W1 – archers shot indoors on Vegas faces at 18 metres and were not separated by gender. Compound used the three-spot 40cm face, while recurve and W1 used the single-spot 40cm face.
After 60 arrows, Mustafa Birlik of host nation Türkiye led the recurve ranking with 528 points, while Gabriele Saccoman of Italy topped a tighter compound field with 553. Francesco Maria Sorato, also of Italy, led the small W1 field with 582.
After a second day of eliminations, Birlik held on until the semifinals but was defeated by Ivan Denis of Slovakia, who will now face Türkiye’s Sezgin Zeynep in the final. Top seed Saccoman will meet another archer from Slovakia, Liliana Lacova, for the compound title, while Sorato will face compatriot Francesco Tomaselli for gold in W1.
Competition at the 2025 European Para Youth Games concludes with finals on Friday.
