Ivan Bancchev Finishes 5th at European Archery Championship in Antalya

  • May 22, 2026 | 15:07

Ivan Bancchev secured a prestigious 5th place in the final standings of the European Archery Championship, which took place in Antalya. His journey to this notable ranking was far from easy. Bancchev finished 51st in the qualifying rounds.

In the first match, Bancchev faced Marcus Nikanen from Finland and won 6-4 (27-29, 27-26, 28-28, 28-25, 28-28). In the 1/24 elimination round, he met a familiar opponent, Ziga Ravnikar from Slovenia, winning again 6-4 (24-27, 26-24, 26-27, 29-27, 29-28). This victory secured a recurve men's quota for Bulgaria for the European Games to be held in Istanbul later this year.

Bancchev's Path to the Final Rankings

During the 1/16 elimination round, Bancchev faced the well-known archer Patrick Huston from Great Britain. The elimination match again lasted five sets, and the final result was 6-4 (25-27, 28-27, 25-19, 27-29, 29-28).

In the 1/8 elimination round, Bancchev faced Diego Conde Collar from Spain. The match was evenly matched, and Bancchev secured the win 6-5 (25-28, 28-25, 27-25, 25-26, 25-25, 10-8) after a tiebreaker.

Bancchev's Final Match and Team Performance

In the battle for a semi-final place, Bancchev faced his toughest opponent to date: the Olympic medalist from Tokyo 2020, Maurizio Nespoli from Italy. Bancchev put up a valiant performance but narrowly missed victory. The match ended 4-6 (27-27, 27-30, 30-27, 29-29, 26-27). This was Bancchev's strongest elimination in the competition, placing him 5th in the final standings and setting the best individual performance by a Bulgarian at an outdoor European Championship this century.

In the team recurve competition, Bulgaria, represented by Atanas Petrov, Ivan Bancchev, and Stanislav Stamov, finished 16th. Stanislav finished 44th individually after losing to the current world champion Andres Teminyo, while Atanas secured 80th place in the final standings.

Raya Ivanova, still under 21 years of age, secured her first elimination in the men/women age group at the European Championship during the 1/48 elimination round. In the next match, she lost to Duna Jenehaj, narrowly missing a recurve women's quota for the European Games. She finished 49th overall.

Raya's sister, Martina Ivanova, also performed admirably, finishing 60th in the final standings, while the third Bulgarian representative in the recurve women's category, Maria Pavlova, secured 66th place. The team of Maria, Martina, and Raya finished 17th overall.

The mixed team of Ivan Bancchev and Raya Ivanova also performed well, finishing 9th out of 30 teams. They eliminated Hungary in their path and lost to Spain in the 1/8 elimination round with a score of 2-6 (38-37, 37-38, 36-38, 37-38).

Earlier in the week, a congress of the European Archery Federation was held in Antalya. Symbolically, on Sports Day, May 17, Bulgaria was chosen to host the European Indoor Championship in 2029.