Leicester archer Megan Havers has helped Great Britian win six quota spots for the Paris Olympic Games at the Final Olympic Qualifier in Antalya, Turkey, ensuring they will take a full team of archers to Paris.
Competing in the women’s recurve team alongside Bryony Pitman and Penny Healey, the team from GB faced Japan and won the match 6 – 2 to earn their spots.
After earning their tickets to Paris, Penny Healey said: “This feels like one of the biggest reliefs. It’s been something that’s been coming for a while now and we’ve put a lot of work in over the past three years.”
Hoping to secure a men’s team spot in Paris, Archery GB’s Alex Wise, Conor Hall and Tom Hall, who made up the men’s recurve team, kicked off the tournament by qualifying in fourth place.
In the semi-final match against Mexico, they just missed out on winning a place in the gold final which would have guaranteed their Olympic spot, meaning the team had to earn nothing short of bronze to make it to Paris.
In a nail-biting match, the GB archers faced the team from Germany and after a tie breaking finish, Tom Hall shot the final arrow, winning the match with a 56 to Germany’s 55 and earning their men’s team Olympic spot.
Alex Wise said: “Everyone in archery knows that the Olympics is the pinnacle of recurve archery, and it was everything we could’ve hoped for. We trained for it, we were prepared for it, but we probably didn’t expect in our heart of hearts that it would go the way it did because there are so many strong teams out there. We knew that if we were on it, and with a bit of luck, that we could do it, and fortunately that’s exactly what happened. The stars aligned in the right way all day.”
Both teams will stay in Antalya until 23 June to compete in the third stage of the Archery World Cup and will then return to the UK to continue their training in the lead up to the Games.
Tom Duggan, Performance Director at Archery GB, said: “I’m delighted we have been able to secure these spots for Paris. A lot of time and planning by both the athletes and staff has gone in to getting us this opportunity. Everyone executed the plan perfectly and the decisions we made to change our preparation paid off.
“We are really lucky to have Bryony and Penny in the women’s team, both have won World Cup stages in this cycle as well as being world number one. Megan had a good domestic season last year and shot her way onto the team through the selection process, showing so much personality and composure.”
