China’s Wu Chunyan took a historic fourth world para title in recurve women’s open at the Gwangju 2025 World Archery Para Championships, beating her teammate Gao Zihan 6-0.
After a testy opening set, Chunyan just edged the second set with a clutch nine for 28 to go four points up. Gao found a ten to close out the last set and apply some pressure but Wu calmly responded with a ten of her own to close it out.
It was a composed, champion performance, and her fourth gold after individual wins in Donaueschingen 2015, ’s-Hertogenbosch 2019, and Pilsen 2023 – but her first successful defence.
Wu is now the first para competitor to take four world championship titles with the same bow. (Korea’s Lee Ouk Soo of Korea also took four titles, but in both recurve W2 and compound).
The bronze was won by 23-year-old Wang Xueqian, in her first international competition, completing a Chinese clean sweep of the women’s podium.
Wang beat Elisabetta Mijno in that match, who after failing to make the individual final for the chance at the medal she wanted the most, then managed to lose all three finals on the stage, including the individual bronze final, in a shoot-off, after fighting back from 5-1 down.
The men’s individual title was won by Stefano Travisani of Italy, beating neutral athlete Anton Ziapaev 7-1, in a one-sided final.
After splitting the first set, Travisani was gifted the second and third after Ziapaev, scoring well, was unable to close either of them out. The same happened in the last, with Travisani consistent enough to finish it off.
It was an impressive bounce back for the Italian after losing two team finals earlier in the session. “I’ve never actually won the individual, so this is really different,” he said.
“Yes, I started off a bit cautiously, but the tension was there, which is normal, but then I loosened up and went all the way. But I was determined, and that was the right approach.”
