Great Britain returned home from the European Championships with two medals and one title retained.
.jpg)
At the 2024 European Championships in Essen, Germany, GB had a week of excellent shooting and medals to boot.
Ella Gibson came away with her first outdoor individual European gold, keeping the title in GB’s possession for another two years; the 2022 edition of the Championships was won by GB compound squad member, Izzy Carpenter.
After qualifying in 3rd place, Ella fought through her matches, along the way she came up against and beat fellow teammate Layla Annison. On the finals stage, Ella faced 5th ranked Elisa Roner from Italy. The two battled it out through five ends which resulted in a tie. Ella shot first, sending her arrow into the ten, which Roner’s nine couldn’t contend with.
Ella said: “All that was going through my mind was that if I was going down then I would go down giving it my everything not being careful or cautious.
It's my first outdoor European individual title, it meant a lot. Especially as my first individual outdoor senior medal was actually a silver at the Europeans in 2021, so it feels like a full circle, except that I won this one. I remember how nervous and hard I found that final and how different I am now with so much more experience”
.jpg)
On the recurve side, Bryony Pitman and Conor Hall came together for the mixed team competition; their first time shooting as a pair since they became the European Field mixed team champions in 2021.
They ranked in 9th place, shooting their way through to the gold final against the home team, Germany. After four ends of very closely scored arrows from both teams, Germany won gold on home soil with 6-2, awarding GB the silver. This is the GB recurve team’s first European mixed team medal since Charlotte Burgess and the late Simon Terry won bronze in 2010.
Bryony told us: “All throughout the matches I think we had each other’s backs and shot really well together, and it was just nice to be on a finals stage together. We trusted each other, went and enjoyed it, and made the most of the experience.”
