YANKTON, S.D. – Julie Jones won silver at the World Archery 3D Championships, and in doing so created history by becoming the first USA woman to win an individual medal at the event, which began in 2003.
Jones was making only her second-ever appearance at the World Archery 3D Championships. She was part of the women’s team including Jayme Buchanan, Katherine Li and Madison Ritter to claim bronze at the 2024 World 3D Championships in Mokrice, Slovenia. Two years on and she did even better.
“It's a little surreal, I'll be honest,” began Julie Jones on hearing she had made history. “I love 3D. That is my passion aside from hunting. I guess if you ask me how I felt about it, I'm glad that I could bring it back for the U.S. team. But it really isn't a short answer. It goes a lot further than that.
"This whole time that I've been shooting, I've had an incredible team of people behind me from the very beginning. They have encouraged, they've pushed, they've believed in me when I had doubts about my own abilities. Without them, none of none of this would have been possible.
“I know that I don't have to prove anything to them but bringing this silver medal home, it's a testament to the training and the coaching that that I've received, that this medal belongs to all of these people, not just to me.”
Jones was seeded seventh after qualification before moving through the bracket with wins over teammate Mandy Boggs, Olga Timofeeva (RUS) and Martina Blahusova (CZE). The U.S. archer from Texas settled for silver after defeat in the gold medal match to fifth seed Judith Wenzl (GER).
“I had 100 percent confidence in the training and the coaching that I'd received," explained Jones. "I knew that if I applied all of the mental work, all of the physical work, as well as the actual shooting, I was reasonably confident that I could be in the top 10. That really wasn't a doubt in my mind.
"I knew that if I ran my process and executed well, that there was a good chance I would be in the top five, if not the top three. So that part of it was not necessarily a surprise to me.
“I've had some health challenges along the way and so day two was not a good day for me physically. And it was a struggle just to make it through the round. So that kind of threw a spanner into it.
“But I'm glad that it worked out as well as it did. I shoot very well under pressure. And I knew that if I could make it into those head-to-head eliminations, that I could work. Even though I had dropped points on day two, I knew that I could work myself back up to a to a better position.”
Julie Jones was also part of the bronze medal-winning traditional mixed team alongside Cody Hasson. Hasson, a double gold medalist at last year’s Pan American Field Championships, finished sixth in the individual men’s event.
Jones added, “I am tickled to death that Cody and I ended up with the bronze medal. He is a really, really strong shooter. I may be mistaken, but I don't think he's ever medaled before (at World 3D), and just to see the excitement and the absolute joy on his and our coach Shiloh's (Butts) face, when we realized that we had won that last round, that was a great feeling.”
For Jones, this was a family affair, with husband Daniel having also made the team. For Daniel, it was not only his World 3D Championship debut but also his first major event outside of local competition. A first major event for Daniel and the first U.S. woman to win an individual medal at the World 3D Championships for Julie. A case of keeping up with the Joneses!
“I'm just a normal person,” continued Julie. “I'm a mom. I have kids. I'm self-employed. I don't have a big, fancy facility, but, you know, I go out and I'm passionate about 3D archery.”
This success comes just a few weeks before a significant birthday for Julie on November 1. She said with a smile, “Just a month before, to achieve this, I couldn’t ask for anything more. This is year 50 for me. I have my 50th birthday coming up. And winning individual silver is pretty much the best present that I could imagine.”
Matt Hudson and Ava Jones combined to take silver in the barebow mixed team. Seeded at number two, the pair defeated Austria (150-136) and Denmark (152-141) before defeat to Russia (144-123). Ava Jones, making her World Archery 3D Championships debut, came in fourth in barebow women.
Other top 10 individual finishes came for Kim Timberlake (4th in longbow women), Joella Bates (8th in longbow women) and Lee Wilkins (10th in longbow men). Timberlake’s march to the bronze medal match included a 96-66 quarterfinals win over third seed Paula Virmasalo (FIN).
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