Six archers got the privilege of being the first group of athletes to compete for Team GB at Paris 2024 in the ranking round.
The traditional pre-Opening Ceremony curtain-raiser is neither televised nor ticketed and involves all 128 archers shooting 72 arrows each on the same field, with total scores producing seedings for individual and team competition.
Megan Havers, who attended her school prom a few weeks ago, fired the first shot in in the women’s round to become the first British athlete to step onto the field of play at the Games.
“I like to shoot first so I don’t get in my own head, that’s my rule,” said the 16-year-old, who was wearing a bucket hat and a colourful bracelet made by her school friend Eva.
“It’s a cool thing to be the first athlete to compete, but I didn’t do it deliberately!”
Tokyo Olympian Bryony Pitman finished 41st, Havers 49th and Penny Healey 52nd.
Team GB are seeded 11th for the women’s team competition on Sunday and they have been drawn to face Germany in the first round.
“At this level, there are 64 of us and there are 64 people that can win, that can do well,” said Pitman. “I'm just going to go into the matches as positive as I can and to do the best that I can, fire the best shots. Hopefully it will be enough to win a medal.
“The same in the team round, we're going to just focus on our game, perform the best we can and see if it's good enough on the day.”
On the men’s side, Alex Wise led the way with 27th place, with Conor Hall 46th and Tom Hall 51st, meaning they will face Chinese Taipei in the first elimination round on Monday.
Wise said: “As a team, every single thing we’ve done this year is going to give us confidence heading into the finals. We all back ourselves on the big stage, that’s where we’re going to thrive so I’m just really looking forward to it.”
The archery squad will get to attend Friday night’s Opening Ceremony for the first time due to a change that sees no action scheduled for Saturday.
Individual events, in which all six Team GB archers will feature, start on Tuesday.
Sportsbeat 2024