Pablo Gomez Zuluaga put in a career-best performance to upset Mike Schloesser and win the compound men’s individual gold at Madrid 2026 – stage four of the Hyundai World Cup.
As far as maiden individual World Cup golds go, they don’t come much greater than this.
If the odds on a Schloesser win today under the baking Spanish sun weren’t high enough, then they were heightened by how the four-time circuit champion lived up to his nickname, ‘Mister Perfect’, and shot a 150 in the semifinals against the Winnipeg 2025 World Youth under-18 champion, Simon Moritz in the semifinals.
Gomez Zuluaga, on the other hand, had only one of his five ends entirely in the 10 and X rings when he beat a target-panicked Chen Chieh-Lun in the other match.
Starting off, this looked a formality as Schloesser shot 30 in the first end, whilst the Colombian’s first arrow went above the 10-ring and into the nine, meaning it would be a game of cat and mouse, the cat having it most difficult given the mouse’s world-renowned quality.
The Colombian cat did pounce on its prey though, and more so in the last two ends when, at 89-88 up, Schloesser uncharacteristically strayed wide with two nines, one in the low left-centre and the other just right of the 10 – barely missing the line. Gomez Zuluaga took advantage with two 30s to end the afternoon session 148-147.
“He’s an incredibly strong archer, so it’s rare for him to drop points like that,” Gomez Zuluaga told World Archery, having never faced Schloesser in an individual match before today. “You have to capitalize when it happens. During the match, I was trailing by a point for most of it.”
“In the end, he shot that nine, which gave me the slight advantage I needed to close it out – and we did. I think I achieved one of the goals I’ve had throughout my entire career so, I’ll just keep working, keep aiming for bigger things, and I think we’re on the right track.”
