Lausanne, Switzerland, December 9. 2021: The Korean city of Gwangju has been named host of the World Archery Championships and World Archery Congress in 2025 at a meeting of the executive board in Lausanne on December 5.
Gwangju was selected ahead of Madrid by 10 votes to one.
It will be the third time that archery’s leading nation has hosted the world championships, following Seoul in 1985 and Ulsan in 2009.
The city’s bid proposes Gwangju International Archery Centre, which hosted the archery competitions at the Universiade in 2015, as the main tournament venue and a temporary arena next to the iconic Asia Culture Centre for finals.
Gwangju has also committed to running archery outreach programmes with the establishment of a promotional facility.
As well as the worlds in four years’ time, the Korean city will join next season’s international calendar, too. Gwangju will replace Shanghai as the Asian leg of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in 2022 due to ongoing travel restrictions in China.
The board also unanimously awarded the 2025 World Archery Youth Championships to the Canadian city of Winnipeg, which was the only bidder.
A decision on the host of the 2022 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final is expected before the spring, with a deadline of 31 January set for interested cities to complete their bids.
Korea won six gold medals at Tokyo 2020 including four in archery, with three for An San in women’s singles, women’s team and mixed team.