Spain claimed their first World Archery Championships gold in the recurve mixed team final on a hot Wednesday afternoon, much to the disappointment of hometown hero An San, at Gwangju 2025.
Elia Canales and Andres Temiño Mediel looked far more comfortable on the stage at 5.18 Democracy Square than their Korean counterparts. The Spaniards dropped just two eights across the match, while An San and Kim Woojin cost themselves three eights and a wide seven, finishing with a 6-2 score line.
“I’m really proud of our team, myself, my country, everything, and I’m really happy,” said 2024 European Championships silver medallist Canales, emotional during the medal ceremony. “I have no words for today. I’ve been thinking about this moment a lot, and it finally became real, so I’m just going to enjoy it.”
“We’ve been there a lot of times in World Cups, and [this] is another similar competition. If it wasn’t this time, maybe it would be another. We just trust ourselves and in every competition, we give our 100 per cent and that’s it.”
Beyond the upset, Spain’s victory against two Olympic Champions – An San in Tokyo 2020 and Kim Woojin in Paris 2024 – symbolises the arrival of another European country to the world medal table. Historically, Spanish recurvers have competed at Olympic Games and World Championships, with names like Antonio Vázquez Mejido, Carlos Holguín and Olimpia Alemán in the 1980s and 1990s. Yet major honours proved elusive.
A breakthrough came in 2015 when Miguel Alvarino Garcia won the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final and European Games, setting the stage for today’s generation. Pablo Acha succeeded at the 2021 European Championships, and Alvarino Garcia retained the same title in 2022.
Temiño Mediel, the second seed of the individual event, has also shot alongside Alvarino in the past, winning the mixed team event at the 2023 European Games. Today, partnering Canales, he surpassed that achievement, etching his name into history alongside his teammate.
“I’m really proud of it because this season I didn’t shoot a 670 in any competition, so achieving it in a World Championship is even better,” Canales said, referring to her individual qualification round where she equalled her personal best of 673.
