After the first two rounds of individual eliminations, GB have two athletes through to the last sixteen.
At the last Olympic Games in Tokyo, only Bryony Pitman was successful in making it through the first three matches, finishing in 9th place. But at the current Games in Paris, two GB archers have fought their way through to the final sixteen.
Tom Hall and Conor Hall both won their 1/32 matches with six set points to their opponents’ four. Conor defeated Jean-Charles Valladont on home soil, a day after the Frenchman earned a team silver medal, and Tom bested India’s Tarundeep Rai. Unfortunately, this meant that the two GB archers met in the 1/16 in the ultimate Hall vs Hall match-up. After an epic five ends of archery, the Brits took their match to a shoot-off. Tom was able to cinch the win with a ten to Conor’s eight, awarding Conor 17th position overall while Tom will go on to compete in the 1/8 round.
Conor, Olympic debutant, said: “It’s Tom – if you’re going to lose against somebody, lose against a teammate. That's probably the best shooting I've seen from Tom for a while. He really, really, really pulled it out of the bag today. He should have had two 30s in the first two sets. He was a millimetre away, twice.
"We showed what British archery can be. We didn't show it in the team round, but we came out here today and put on an exhibition of British archery. The only way is up for us.”
Tom Hall during his winning set of the 1/32 round.
Up next was another Olympic debutant, and the youngest member of the Team GB archers at just sixteen, Megan Havers. She breezed through her first match with a clean 6-0 victory over Spain’s Elia Canales. Then she came up against French archer, Amelie Cordeau in the 1/16 round. After five intense ends, the pair took the match to a shoot-off, and a perfect ten from Megan sealed the deal. She has advanced into the final sixteen at her very first Olympics.
On her win, Megan said: "I have so many emotions running through me right now. I want to cry. I want to yell, I want to hug people. It's absolutely amazing. When I came here this morning, I said to my coach, 'I just want to make my first match a really hard match (for my opponent)'. And now I'm into the next round.
"When I went to prom, no one knew I was going to the Olympics. And the amount of support I've got from home, from my school, people sending me texts, watching me on the TV, it's the most amazing thing that ever happened to me."
Megan Havers celebrates her 1/16th round win with coach, Naomi Folkard.
World ranked number eight Penny Healey faced Korea’s Jeon Hunyoung, who previously this week had just won the women’ team gold medal. Penny took the first two set points, but unfortunately, the Korean archer threw down two 28s and a 29 to take the win, putting Penny in 33rd place.
Bryony Pitman, second-time Olympian, was up next on the finals stage for the GB women. She defeated Angela Ruiz in the 1/32, only letting the Mexican gain two set points to her six. She then faced the 9th ranked Chinese archer, Li Jiaman, for a space in the last sixteen. Bryony was consistent, putting down ends of 26 and 27, but it wasn’t enough, and Li took a 6-0 win.
Bryony told us: “It's difficult when you lose every set by a point. Obviously, at Tokyo, there were no spectators. It was eerily silent. There was still that pressure. You still wanted to perform, but for a sport that doesn't get much exposure, coming out to this crowd has been like nothing I've ever experienced. I'm so grateful for everybody who’s travelled to support and even the French support as well.”
Bryony Pitman waves to the 8,000 people in the crowd.
Last up to shoot was Alex Wise, another of the team’s Olympic debutants. In the 1/32 round, Alex came up against China’s Li Zhongyuan, 38th ranked to Alex’s 27th. After four ends, Alex was 5-3 up, only needing a draw to take the win. Both archers equalled with 27 apiece, completing the match 6-4 in Alex’s favour. Sadly, against Frenchman Addis Baptiste, Alex lost 3-7, narrowly missing out on a place in the final sixteen alongside Tom Hall and Megan Havers.
Alex said: “I thought I could get much further at the Games here. I really back myself shooting on a stage like we’ve just shot on, so very disappointed obviously, but it’s been an absolute pleasure to do it this week. Winning a match at the Olympics is pretty cool. I’m going to go spend some time with my family. It’s a dream to become an Olympian, but it’s a dream to have them here watching me as well.”
Watch Megan and Tom compete in the 1/8 round: Saturday at 9:09am for Megan and Sunday at 9:48am for Tom! Find out where to watch by clicking the button below:
