Mexico’s Andrea Becerra won the compound women’s title at the Chengdu 2025 World Games on Saturday, beating Lisell Jaatma of Estonia, 147-146 on the stage at Qinglong Lake Park.
“It was amazing, I just had a lot of fun,” said Becerra, who took a silver medal in the compound mixed team final the previous day. The Mexican had already dispatched defending champion Ella Gibson and Colombia’s Alejandra Usquiano on her way to the last two.
The final took several turns, with a clearly jumpy Becerra sending down a disastrous high eight in the first end. “I knew I had to lose hopefully no points after that and I almost managed it, but I felt really nice and just hoping for the best.“
“I knew that I could finish strong and that’s what happened. So it was just managing everything and just trying not to think about it,” she said.
Jaatma maintained the two point lead until the fourth end, when she sent down three nines to flip the script and hand Becerra the lead. Both archers visibly tightened up, but both shot the last end clean to give the title to Becerra.
A frustrated Jaatma said: “I’m really happy. Of course I wanted gold, it was really close but I’m still happy about my silver.”
“I have to look back [at the fourth end] because the first two shots were pretty good. So I was a bit like frustrated like why they went to the nine. But yeah, I don’t know. I have to look back. It was a really tight match.”
For Becerra, it was a huge improvement over her last individual World Games performance at Birmingham 2022 where she exited in the second round. “What’s changed? I think for sure my mindset.” said the 25-year-old.
“I’ve just tried to enjoy every single day, like repeating myself ‘you can do it’. Everything is different about me. I’ve been working really hard and it’s paying off.”
The bronze medal also went to Estonia as Meeri-Marita Paas, who had been beaten by her teammate Jaatma in the semifinal, dominated an off-form Alejandra Usquiano in a one-sided match.
Competition at the 2025 World Games continues on Monday with recurve field qualifying.
