Ella Gibson has saved her best performance of the season until last, securing a place in the compound women’s final four at the fourth stage of the 2026 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Madrid.
It comes a day after she and Ajay Scott booked their place in the compound mixed team gold medal match against Mexico, while her individual appearance at the Complutense National Stadium marks the 10th Hyundai Archery World Cup stage semifinal of her career at just 26 years of age.
Chinese Taipei’s Chen Yi-Hsuan stood between Gibson and the semifinals, but the Vegas Shoot champion produced a commanding 144-140 victory. The four-point margin was unusually comfortable at this level, with Chen failing to shoot a perfect 30-point end, while Gibson managed two despite strengthening winds at Vallehermoso Stadium.
It was Gibson’s fourth-round match against Sara Lopez, however, that proved her toughest test.
The contest swung back and forth throughout, with the lead changing hands several times. Trailing by one point at 118-117 going into the final end, Lopez shot a nine, while Gibson responded with two Xs and a 10 to force a shoot-off.
“I knew that would be a hard one,” said Gibson, who now holds a 4-1 head-to-head record against Lopez since the pair first met in 2022. “I knew she would’ve really wanted to beat me. I know we have plenty of history, so I was kind of prepared for that to be difficult.”
Gibson said she had expected Lopez to finish strongly and went into the final end focused only on executing her own shots rather than worrying about the outcome. The pair eventually went to a shoot-off, where Gibson prevailed by the narrowest of margins.
“We ended up in a shoot-off and then shot our arrows in almost identical places. I won that by like a shaft, so I shot some really good arrows at important moments. I definitely wasn’t perfect today, so in that sense I slightly got away with it, but I also think I was just in a better headspace to compete today and handle the not-so-good shots better.”
