World Archery 3D Championships 2026, Yankton USA

This year's 3D World Championships were held in NFAA Easton Yankton Archery Center, USA 28 Sept to 3 Oct 2026. The Finnish team was small with 5 archers. Of the team event formats, we only had the compound mixed team.

Qualification round 1

First day of qualification started rough. I was struggling with my form and didn't feel confident. It took me 9 targets before I finally got the gist of it. Before the 10th target, I was tracking toward a 304. Eventually, I shot a total of 343 points and had the 2nd highest score of the day. Unfortunately, a judge had moved a trickier target which I had shot well (15 p) and it resulted in disqualification of that target. It's perfectly acceptable if a target does not fully face the archers. However, moving the target during the competition is prohibited, as it changes the perspective for subsequent archers.

So my final verified score was 328 and seed went down from 2 to 3.

Qualification round 2

Second day started with a nerve-wracking long distance small peccary. Luckily I was the C shooter, so I could take a little more time to estimate the distance and see how others deal with it. I had a miss and an 8. After 9 targets, I was on pace for a 371, whereas the previous day's score had been 304.

I hit my bow a couple times with my arrow and it was a bit weird. It took me too many arrows to notice my side plate had been torn and it interfered with the arrow's clearance. I hit a couple of lefties and got low scores and it shook me a bit, but luckily it was just a small equipment failure. 

I was consistent enough with my shooting that the final score for the second day was 371, only 1 point behind the highest score of the day. Final seed 3 (with 699 points) and as 16 best will go through to the matches, I was going to shoot against the seed 14.

Matches

I'm not sure why I felt different, but I wasn't going into the matches with my war face on. Maybe it was the fact that the course was pretty much the same as it was on the first qualification day with only a few changes. I know my focus wasn't where it should have been. It was like I was not at the World Champs - like it was just a day in the woods in Finland. If I compare my mind to where I was mentally in Serbia last year, I was nowhere near that concentration. Is the flow state something edible? All I know is I need to be hungry enough to want the title and humble enough to stay focused.

I won my first match, but lost the second.

I'm currently 5th in the world. It's kind of a disappointment, but I know what to work on.

Photos by World Archery.