COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Of the 24 awards presented by World Archery Americas as part of their Americas 2023 Awards, 12 have gone to the United States.
The USA was well represented in the youth category, claiming six of the eight awards on offer. Casey Kaufhold and Liko Arreola were both recognized for their outstanding performances in 2023, which included individual gold medals at World Cup Stage 4 and Stage 3 respectively. Kaufhold won on the site of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris while Arreola became the youngest individual medalist at a World Cup aged just 15 years and 330 days when taking gold in the compound women in Medellin.
Elsewhere, and medalists from the World Archery Youth Championships in Ireland were among the award recipients, including double world champion Dewey Hathaway (compound), individual gold medalist Sydney Sullenberger (compound), mixed team silver medalist Christian Stoddard (recurve) and Sawyer Sullivan (compound), a men's team bronze medalist. Sullivan was also a double silver medalist at the World Cup Stage #1 in Turkey last year.
The reigning Paralympic recurve men open champion Kevin Mather became world champion in 2023, while K.J. Polish was faultless in the USAT events and later claimed his first-ever gold at the Para Pan Am Games. Both were Americas 2023 Awards winners.
Barebow came out on top in both the men’s and women’s senior category, courtesy of Marcus Cooley and Fawn Girard. Their 2023s included individual glory at the Pan American Field Championship in Argentina.
There was also a nod to the tireless work carried out by Guy Krueger, USA’s Archery Director of Education. He was among the two winners in the category of Outstanding Service Award in Coach Education, while USA Archery collected an award for Major Contribution to Sport Development.
