Alexis Ruiz has taken the first World Cup qualification pole position of her career at stage two of the 2026 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Shanghai, leading the compound women's draw with 707 points and 30 X-ring hits.
The American narrowly edged Mexico's Andrea Becerra, who finished tied on 707 but with 25 Xs, with the X-count tiebreaker handing Ruiz the top seed. China's Ma Shujia rounded out the top three on 706 to keep the home crowd in the medal picture going into the elimination rounds.
It was the highlight result of a frustrating few months for Ruiz, who had a rough run at the U.S. Gator Cup back in April. She said the morning's qualification round at the Yuanshen Sports Centre felt unusually relaxed from the very start.
"This morning it just felt good. I even made a comment to my mum that today just kind of feels easy and that's not something that comes around very often," Ruiz said.
The top seed gives Ruiz the most favourable elimination ladder in the women's compound bracket and pairs her with the lowest-ranked qualifier in her opening round. The result also continued a strong run for the U.S. compound women's program, which has been one of the deepest in the world over the past two seasons.
The compound men's qualification was led by Türkiye's Emircan Haney, who shot a national record 718 in pursuit of James Lutz's world record of 719 set at the Gator Cup. Haney finished one point shy of Lutz's mark and just edged Denmark's Mathias Fullerton (717) on the leaderboard. Mexico's Sebastian Garcia Flores took the third seed with 713.
For Ruiz, the result is a marker of her senior career to date. She has been a fixture in U.S. compound team events for several seasons and has represented the program at the World Cup Final, but had never previously claimed the No. 1 seed at a World Cup stage. The Shanghai pole adds to a top-end resume that includes a string of team golds across recent World Cup stages.
The USA compound women's team of Ruiz, Olivia Dean and Kaylee Gurney has already advanced to the team final on the back of a 232-231 semifinal win over Korea, where they will face Türkiye's Hazal Burun, Defne Cekmak and Emine Rabia Oguz in a repeat of recent stage finals.
The individual elimination rounds in the compound women's bracket begin Thursday at the Yuanshen Sports Centre, with the gold medal match scheduled for Saturday. Ruiz, Becerra and Ma Shujia are the seeded favourites heading into the bracket.
The Shanghai stage is the second of four regular-season World Cup stops in 2026, with results contributing to qualification for the season-ending World Cup Final.