Patrick Huston secured Great Britain’s first archery place at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro at the Continental Qualifying Tournament held alongside the European Outdoor Championships in Nottingham from 23-29 May. The format was similar to that of the Championships themselves, in which the ranked archers must shoot through knockout head-to-head brackets, but instead of medals or championships titles the top three in each category won a quota place for Rio.
Huston was seeded 27th for the tournament, but overcame five opponents – including three higher seeds – in the knockouts before losing out to Turkey’s second-seed Mete Gazoz in the semi-finals. However, he came back to beat Luka Popovic in the bronze medal match to secure a quota place. Gazoz won the gold medal match and a spot for Turkey, while second place went to Samuli Piippo of Finland.
Turkey won another spot in the women’s event as Yasemin Anagoz, the top seed, beat Russia’s Alexandra Longova in a shoot-off final. Olga Senyuk of Azerbaijan took the last available women’s quota place.
The next – and final – chance for archers to qualify for the Games will be at the third stage of the World Cup in Antalya, Turkey, this week.
