Lausanne starts the indoor season with 379 archers

The outdoor calendar has barely cooled, and the indoor season is already under way. The Swiss Open Lausanne 2026 began on 30 October at the World Archery Excellence Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland, as the opening event of the 2027 Hyundai Indoor World Series. Qualifying started on Friday and the medal matches are scheduled for Sunday 1 November.

World Archery's preview puts the field at 379 archers from 30 countries, with France the largest delegation at 92. Recurve and compound are contested in elite, under-21 and 50-plus categories, and barebow makes its Swiss Open debut this year. Winners take home CHF 2,500, and the event carries 250 ranking points toward the 2027 Indoor World Series elite and youth rankings. Lausanne has now opened the indoor season four years running.

The schedule is compact. Friday was two qualification sessions. Saturday 31 October brings a third qualification session, the elimination rounds and a new-format secondary tournament in the evening. On Sunday the barebow, 50-plus and under-21 finals start at 10:30 local time (09:30 UTC), with the elite finals at 14:00 local (13:00 UTC). The finals stream on archery+, which requires a subscription, and live scores are on the World Archery website.

The entry list reads like a continuation of the outdoor season. In compound men, Denmark's Mathias Fullerton, the world number one and silver medallist at the 2026 World Cup Final in Saltillo, is entered alongside Mike Schloesser, the 2023 Swiss Open winner, and Nicolas Girard, the 2025 runner-up. Mexico's Andrea Maya Becerra Arizaga, world number two, leads the compound women, where Italy's Francesca Aloisi defends her title and compatriot Elisa Roner, the 2025 silver medallist, is also in the field. India's Jyothi Surekha Vennam is entered as well.

In recurve, Czechia's Marie Horackova, the world number one, arrives as both the 2026 World Cup Final champion and the defending Swiss Open champion. On the men's side, Mexico's Matias Grande (world number five) and Willem Bakker, the 2025 bronze medallist, are listed.

Why it matters: the indoor circuit is a long game. There are eight ranking events between October 2026 and March 2027, finishing with the Indoor World Series Finals in Las Vegas on 14 March 2027, after the Vegas Shoot. Lausanne is the first chance to bank ranking points, and the first look at who has carried their form into the 18-metre season. This post was written before the finals, so results are not included.

Chinese juniors make an indoor debut

Three young archers from Jingshe Archery Club in Qingdao, China, are in Lausanne for their international debuts and first major indoor event: Zhonghan "Harry" Chen, 12, Jia Yinru, 13, and Zhang Xinyi, 13. Team manager Eric Li said the club had planned to bring at least ten archers, but several parents cancelled late. The club, founded by retired recurve archer Amy Li, says it has more than 200 registered archers. Coach Bernardo Oliveira put the group through eight hours of coaching in their first two days, covering posture, bow tuning, simulated tournament ends and scoring, and chose not to overhaul technique before competing. In the under-21 category, Chen posted a qualification score of 549, an average of 9.15 per arrow.

Kang Yeonseo, 14, reflects on a breakthrough year

World Archery profiled Korean compound archer Kang Yeonseo, 14, the youngest archer ever picked for Korea's senior squad. She won two bronze medals at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, including an individual bronze with a 145-143 win over teammate Park Jungyoon, and a team bronze at the Madrid World Cup. She shot 702 in the 72-arrow ranking round and opened her elimination run with consecutive perfect 150s; the second, which included six X10s against India's Jyothi Surekha Vennam, was a world-record match score for under-18 compound women. Sergio Pagni, a two-time World Cup compound champion, is now Korea's head coach as the country builds toward compound's Olympic debut at LA28.

Slovakia trains in Lausanne ahead of Dakar 2026

Slovakia became the third country to use the World Archery Excellence Centre for a week-long preparation camp ahead of the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games. The 5-9 October camp, supported by Olympic Solidarity, hosted Adela Tollarovicová, 15, and Oliver Sotak, 16, with coaches Kyeongsu Jeoung and Howard Catherine. Juraj Duchon, who will lead the Slovak team in Senegal, has set a top-16 finish as the goal for Sotak. Bulgaria's Neda Kenderova and Georgia's Daviti Basiladze attended a similar camp the previous month. Slovakia's last Youth Olympic archer, Boris Balaz, competed at Nanjing 2014 and later at Rio 2016.

What to watch

Sunday 1 November is the day to follow: the barebow, 50-plus and under-21 finals at 09:30 UTC, then the elite finals at 13:00 UTC. Watch whether Horackova and Aloisi can defend their Swiss Open titles, and how the new barebow field shapes up on its first visit. Further out, the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar are listed for 31 October to 13 November, and the Indoor World Series moves on toward the Las Vegas finals on 14 March 2027.

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