A re-invigorated Lisell Jaatma made no mistake in the compound women’s final this time around as she produced a career-best performance to take gold at the second stage of the 2026 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Shanghai.
The 26-year-old lost last month’s gold medal match in Puebla to all-time great Sara Lopez, but once again shot superbly across both of her individual matches on a pleasant yet windy afternoon in China.
After coming through a gold-worthy 149-149 shoot-off victory over the week’s top seed Alexis Ruiz, the Estonian defeated the same archer who had beaten her in the Chengdu 2025 World Games final, Andrea Becerra, 145-144.
Jaatma dropped only one point – shooting nine 10s – in increasingly difficult conditions as the wind intensified throughout the session.
“I’m still speechless… I have to think about what happened,” said a teary-eyed Jaatma, whose mother and coach Maarika also became emotional once her daughter’s maiden World Cup gold was confirmed. “I was concentrating on doing my own thing. Just shoot well and we will see.”
“Then in the fourth end I shot two nines and got a little nervous, but in the fifth end I was like, ‘Okay, now we have to focus. Just do three good shots and we will see.’”
“I think everybody wants to win and never come back without gold,” she added. “I have silver and bronze, but I’ve been waiting for this for so long, so it means a lot.”
“It’s definitely a special one.”
It was special in more ways than one.
The victory secured Jaatma’s first win over world number one Becerra, added a second medal to her Shanghai campaign after mixed team bronze with brother Robin, and guaranteed her a place at the 2026 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final in Saltillo.
More importantly, however, it confirmed that her decision to step away from the sport last year had been worthwhile.
