TEAM USA AND MEXICO SHINE AT PAN AMERICAN ARCHERY CHAMPIONSHIP IN TLAXCALA, SECURING MEDALS AND LIMA 2027 QUALIFICATION

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Mexico’s archery program delivered a commanding performance at the Pan American Archery Championship in Tlaxcala this past weekend, closing out the event with seven medals and a haul of 12 qualifying spots for the Lima 2027 Pan American Games.

The host nation finished the championship in second place overall, taking home two gold medals, one silver and four bronze, just behind the United States, which topped the overall medal table.

A Strong Finish in the Individual Finals

Mexico entered the final day of competition with three archers in individual medal contention: Ángela Ruiz in women’s recurve, Matías Grande in men’s recurve, and Adriana Castillo in women’s compound.

Castillo finished just off the podium in fourth place after a tough loss to Colombia’s Sara López and Alejandra Usquiano. Ruiz fought her way to bronze after a hard-fought semifinal loss — she reached the semifinals where she was defeated by American Jennifer Muciño, 7-1, then rebounded in the bronze medal match to beat Canada’s Virginie Chénier 7-3 in a tightly contested series (26-26, 28-27, 27-29, 29-26, 27-25). Grande also won bronze, after being beaten in the semifinals by Canadian archer Eric Peters and then defeating American Brady Ellison in the third-place match.

Team Events Carried the Day

The individual results built on a dominant team-event showing. In mixed team recurve, Alejandra Valencia and Matías Grande won gold by defeating the American duo of Brady Ellison and Jennifer Mucino, 39-37. In women’s compound team, Castillo, Maya Becerra and Dafne Quintero won gold after defeating Colombia in a final decided by a shoot-off. 

Mexico also added silver in women’s recurve team (Valencia, Ruiz and Ana Pau Vázquez), plus two bronze medals: in mixed compound team, Becerra and Sebastián García defeated Colombia’s team by a score of 160-158, and in men’s compound team, García, Juan Del Río and Rodrigo González edged Guatemala 238-237 in a contest decided by a single point.

The Competition: Colombia, Canada and the United States

While Mexico topped the headlines, three other nations featured prominently throughout the tournament. The United States finished atop the overall medal table, ahead of Mexico’s second-place finish. American archers Brady Ellison and Jennifer Muciño were a constant presence in the finals — Ellison lost in both the recurve individual bronze match and the mixed team recurve final, while Muciño beat Ruiz in the individual semifinals before the two Americans also fell to Valencia and Grande in the team final.

Colombia was Mexico’s most frequent rival on the compound side. Sara López and Alejandra Usquiano defeated Castillo in the women’s compound individual final, and Colombian teams also reached the finals in women’s compound team (losing to Mexico in a shoot-off) and mixed compound team (falling to Mexico 160-158).

Canada also factored into the medal rounds, particularly in recurve. Eric Peters defeated Grande in the men’s recurve semifinal before Grande recovered to take bronze, while Virginie Chénier fell to Ruiz in the women’s recurve bronze match after an extremely close series.

Guatemala also appeared in the team competition, narrowly losing the men’s compound team bronze match to Mexico by a single point.

Looking Ahead

With Tlaxcala now behind them, archers across the continent turn their attention to the final stop of the 2026 World Cup season in Madrid, Spain, from July 7–12. For Mexico, the tournament also carries longer-term significance: the Pan American Games will be a key competition in preparation for Los Angeles 2028, which will mark a historic moment for the sport by including compound archery in the Olympic program for the first time — a discipline in which Mexico has firmly established itself as one of the region’s top powers.