There is of course only spot per gender per country at the upcoming LA28 Games and although Lopez’s legacy suggests she is still the favourite for the Colombian women role – despite her recent inactivity – no doubt Usquiano will make it a tight race up until that point.
Although self-admittedly noticing her rust at Parque del Arte as well as the wind, Yankton 2021 World champion Lopez still seeded high in the sunny afternoon session, getting 696 for third.
“This is my first World Cup in a year, so I felt like a rookie, it felt like my first World Cup ever,” chuckled the compound legend. “I think you’ll see a much better score from me in the next World Cups but still, finishing third is really good, so I have to be grateful for that, especially because the conditions were really difficult.”
Like Usquiano, Nico Wiener had never topped a World Cup field before today.
Austrian Wiener dropped 356 either side of the session to make it 712, tying with Przemyslaw Konecki but he cemented the number one seed with 36 Xs, seven more than the Polish archer.
The Terni 2022 Rinehart World 3D gold medallist only has one World Cup individual medal to his name [Shanghai 2024] despite shooting as one of the top 10 compound men archers for a number of years and is looking forward to carrying his indoor prowess to outdoors in 2026.
“Last year, I won two of the biggest indoor competitions, Nimes and also the Indoor World Series Finals,” said Wiener. “The outdoor season was maybe not like that lucky because maybe the little luck was missing. This time I was trying to shoot in the morning indoors and then at the afternoon outdoors.”
Competition continues in Puebla on Wednesday with compound team eliminations in the morning and recurve qualifying in the afternoon.
