Germany’s youth compounds also had an excellent day as Simon Moritz and Ruven Flüß won the under-18 and under-21 compound men’s competition respectively.
Ruven produced a solid 146, the highest score of the day, against the characterful Mexican Lot Máximo Méndez Ortiz to take the title after edging through his semifinal against Wei Z Wu of Taipei in a shoot-off.
The German had fought his way up from 30th place in qualification. “It’s unbelievable. It‘s everything I dreamed of. My whole life. Thank you to everyone,” said an emotional Flüß afterwards. Unable to go to the Gwangju 2025 World Archery Championships because of university commitments, he added: ”I hope it’s not my last World Championship.”
Moritz beat Hector McNeilly of New Zealand in the under-18 final, giving that country its best ever result at the youth worlds and the first youth worlds medal since Stephen Clifton took a bronze in 2004.
McNeilly, a veteran of the Limerick 2023 World Archery Youth Championships, shot a miss in another windy final, but was calm about the result. “It’s adapt or die really, but yeah the conditions are there so you’ve got to really use the conditions to your advantage. It‘s what’s happened, you know… I’ll be able to live with it.”
“For New Zealand it I think it’s something special for sure. Archery is even smaller than than everything else, so being able to compete and actually get on the podium is always something that is a great achievement.”
The competition continues with mixed team and individual recruve finals on Sunday. You can watch finals coverage from Winnipeg with a subscription to archery+.
