Casey Kaufhold is back into the final fours as she booked herself onto the stage for the recurve women’s individual event at Antalya 2025, the third stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup.
The world number two beat China’s Hai Ligan 6-2 in the usual recurve set-play system to follow up her prior final four in Central Florida 2025 – the first stage of this year’s World Cup – where she lost the semifinal and bronze medal match.
She is aiming to win her second career individual medal on archery’s premier circuit having done so at Paris 2023.
“This World Cup’s started off a little different. I ranked a little bit lower than I did in Florida when I was 6th,” said Kaufhold who emotionally fell into the arms of teammate Jennifer Mucino at the end. “Here I ranked 18th, so the matches escalated quickly but I made sure to stay in the zone and worry about my shots, my mental, and just stay in my bubble.”
Despite getting a below par seeding from Wednesday’s 60-arrow qualification round, Kaufhold has managed to pull herself into two stage appearances this week, having also booked herself into the recurve women’s team gold match after she, Catalina Gnoriega and Mucino stunned reigning Olympic Games victors Korea on Thursday.
The Indoor Archery World Series Finals champion has never won more than one medal at the same World Cup stage before.
What will be different this time however is she will go straight onto the stage at Antalya Beach Park on Sunday without a day in between – the condensed schedule one of several changes that have been tested this week.
The lack of rest though is something Kaufhold relishes and feels could help her when the time comes to shoot against Tokyo 2020 champion An San.
