Chesterfield’s Dewey Hathaway went to Ireland and came back with a pot of gold — or at least as close to a pot of gold as he could find. 

The 16-year-old was one of several young archers who represented Team USA at the recent World Youth Archery Championships, which were held in Limerick, Ireland earlier this month. It was Hathaway’s first time representing Team USA overseas at that level after he earned one of the qualifying spots in the compound U18 men’s category. Prior to that he was also part of the 2023 United States Archery Team, which consists of the top-ranked archers in the country. 

Despite never competing at a World Youth Archery Championships before, or even leaving the United States, Hathaway competed like a seasoned pro, picking up two gold medals and a bronze over the course of the tournament. Hathaway teamed with Olivia Dean to win gold in the compound U18 mixed team category, combined with fellow compound U18 men’s teammates Landyn Cox and Grady Kane to win a bronze medal in the compound men’s team competition, and won an individual gold as the best compound U18 men’s shooter in the entire tournament, getting through a bracket-style tournament to earn gold on one of the final days of the competition.

“It was kind of overwhelming. Like wow, I get to take home three world medals on my first ever world tournament. It was like wow, this is crazy,” Hathaway said. 

Each event at the World Youth Championships begin with a qualification round, where individuals or teams, depending on the event, shoot a certain number of arrows to establish a ranking. Once they acquire that ranking, they are seeded into a single-elimination bracket. Archery matches have a certain number of “ends” — similar to sets in a tennis match — where athletes will fire a number of arrows at a target, scoring more points the closer to the center they land. The athlete or team that has the most points at the end of each match advances on, with tiebreakers used as necessary. 

Because Hathaway was competing in the compound division, he was aiming his bow at a target 50 meters away. The compound bow is relatively new to competitive archery — it was first included in a World Archery Championship in 1995. According to the World Archery website, “the compound bow was invented in the 1960s as a more mechanically efficient piece of archery equipment. The design uses a levering system of pulleys and cables, making it faster and decidedly more accurate than other types of bow.”

Hathaway was able to take some of the pressure off early in the competition, winning his first gold medal with Dean early on. After the qualifying round, they went into the bracket seeded third, earning a bye in the first round before defeating Colombia and Mexico to advance to the final. The pair handily defeated Great Britain for gold, earning 146 points to Great Britain’s 137.

“It was an amazing accomplishment and I was overwhelmed with joy that I’d won,” Hathaway said on winning his first gold medal with Dean. “After winning the first one it was kind of a relief because I was like well, I get to come home with at least one medal, and now I’ve just got to go and do what I do best and see if I can pick up more.”

He was able to pick up another medal with his teammates Kane and Cox in the team event. After finishing the qualifying round in fourth, the trio defeated Spain but fell to India in the semifinal, pitting them against Italy for the bronze medal. They were able to notch a 208-204 victory for Hathaway’s second medal of the event.  

That left just the individual competition. Hathaway made it through qualifying ranked sixth, earning a bye in the initial elimination round. He bested competitors from Spain, Mexico and New Zealand to reach the final medal round. He earned a spot in the gold medal match after beating South Africa’s Hendre Verhoef, and outshot Lithuania’s Jonas Grigaravicius for his second gold medal of the tournament.

Hathaway said it was a dream come true, but he hopes that this isn’t the last time he finds himself at the top of the podium on archery’s biggest stage.

“The memories I've had shooting a bow makes you want to make more,” Hathaway said. “I don't want that to be my one major breakthrough. I'd like to keep doing what I do best and travel the world and see new places that I never thought I'd see.” 

Hannah Bevis can be reached at hbevis@gazettenet.com. Follow her on Twitter @Hannah_Bevis1.]]>