GB Archery

[Cinnamon Bun 911]

9 minutes ago, Rafa Maciel said:

The announcement is pretty ambiguous. 

 

Pitman said that the first year of an Olympic cycle was "the perfect time to see what else is out there, learn different skills, and to build a new career." She has now joined JP Morgan as an intern but hasn't ruled out being back for LA.  

 

Wise on the other hand has said that he "didn't have another 4 years of the grind left to give" - so I'm not expecting to see him in the mix for Los Angeles. He is however planning to compete in some national compound competitions. 

 

Finally, Bettles has explained her departure through the lens of injury - "The past few years since Tokyo have been a struggle for me with a string of injuries and struggles with my mental health." So, whilst it is probably unlikely, it's not impossible that she too could be back if that's what she decides she wants. 

 

Hopefully Pitman is back for LA, she will be key to the Women's success although there is more young promise in the women's side than the men's.  

 

Wise will be a big miss for the men, a fairly consistent performer who leaves a big hole to be filled. 

 

Hopefully Ella Gibson comes over from compound to do some recurve events, as far as I'm aware there's no plans for a compound to be a late edition for LA or for it even to be included in Brisbane so it would be a shame if she never got to showcase her talent on an Olympic stage. 

 

I'm fairly confident both team will be in decent knick and qualify for LA but we can't leave it as late as we did last time again. 

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

12 minutes ago, Cinnamon Bun said:

Wise will be a big miss for the men, a fairly consistent performer who leaves a big hole to be filled. 

I'd assume that Patrick Huston would go back on to the WCP - he is the highest ranked British Archer in the world currently at Number 28, so it does seem strange that he wasn't on the programme. 

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

For various reasons, I haven't had huge amount of time to post but with a few days of holiday, hopefully I will have time to take a quick tour of results across various sports. 

 

April - Central Florida World Cup Stage I

 

Women's Recurve: Penny Healey & Natasha Homer

Men's Recurve: Patrick Huston

Women's Compound: Ella Gibson

Men's Compound: Ajay Scott

 

Women's Recurve:

Penny Healey qualified in 17th place with a score of 637 whilst Natasha Homer was 47th with 597.

 

In the first round, Healey took out  Tatyana Muntyan (48) 6-2 before taking out  Katharina Bauer 6-2 in round 2. In the 3rd round, Healey dispatched top qualifier  Michelle Kroppen 6-2 to qualify for the Quarter Finals. In the QF, Healey defeated  Elia Canales (8) 6-2 and then guaranteed herself a medal with a 6-2 win over  Li Jiaman (5). In the final, Healey came out on top with a 6-0 win over  Alejandra Valencia (7). This guarantees her place in the World cup Final in Nanjing in October.

 

For Natasha Homer, she put in a pretty decent performance in her first round match against  Catalina Gnoriega (18), winning the first 2 sets but her level dropped off in legs 3 and 4 allowing the American to come through 6-4.

 

Men's Recurve:

Patrick Huston qualified in 45th place with a score of 633. In the knock-out stages, he came up against  Christian Stoddard (20). It was all square after 5 sets and the American ultimately prevailed in the shoot-off. 

 

Women's Compound:

Ella Gibson finished qualifying in 2nd place with a score of 698. She comfortably out-shot  Paulina Ramirez Castillo (31) 147-139 in the first round before losing 146-144 to  Adriana Castillo (18) in the second round. 

 

Men's Compound:

Ajay Scott qualified in 32nd place with a score of 685. He came through the first round with a 147-145 victory over  Ratanadanai Wongtana (33) before coming up just short against top qualifier  Sebastian Garcia 143-142 in the second round. 

 

Mixed Recurve Team:

Healey and Huston qualified in 13th place with a score of 1270. With a bye to the second round, they were drawn against 6th seed  and lost 6-0.

 

Mixed Compound Team:

Gibson and Scott qualified in 7th place with a score of 1383. In the first round they defeated  156-151 to set up a quarter-final match against 2nd seed . Unfortunately, they came up short losing out 157-155.

 

 

May - Shanghai World Cup Stage II

 

Women's Recurve: N/A

Men's Recurve: N/A

Women's Compound: Ella Gibson, Isabelle Carpenter and Layla Annison

Men's Compound: Ajay Scott, Adam Carpenter and Luke Davis

 

Women's Compound:

Ella Gibson finished qualifying in 2nd place with a score of 711, Isabelle Carpenter was in 14th with a score of 699 and Layla Annison was 36th with 685.

 

Both Gibson and Carpenter received a bye through to the second round. Unfortunately, neither was able to progress any further with Gibson defeated by Diana Yunussova (34) 144-141 whilst Carpenter lost out to  Begum Yuva (19) 143-138. Annison safely came through her first round match against  Oznur Cure Girdi (29) 137-131 before losing to  Sim Sooin (4) 136-139.

 

Men's Compound:

Ajay Scott qualified in 15th place with a score of 705, with Adam Carpenter in 40th with score of 694 and Luke Davis in 46th with 690.

 

All three shooters came through their first round matches with both Carpenter and Davis seeing off higher ranked opposition - Carpenter taking out  Isaac Sullivan (25) 138-135 and Davis defeating  Sebastian Garcia (19) 147-144. Scott was victorious against  Yi Tai Wai David (50) 142-139. 

 

In the second round, Carpenter lost out to  Rodrigo Gonzalez (8) 140-144 whilst Davis was on the wrong end of a 141-143 result against  Elias Reyes Cravioto (51). Scott however reached the 3rd round with a 144-141 victory over  Shamai Yamrom (18). His competition was ultimately ended there by  Kim Jongho (2) 142-145.

 

Mixed Compound Team:

Gibson and Scott qualified in 4th place with a score of 1416 and received a bye to the second round. There they defeated 13th seed  157-155 to reach the quarter-finals where they faced 5th seed . The tight match ended in a tie 157-157 with  progressing after a measure. In the semi-final,  were drawn against top seed  and advanced to the gold medal match with a 158-156 victory. 

 

In the final,  prevailed 156-153 over 7th seed 

 

 

June - Antalya World Cup Stage III

 

Women's Recurve: N/A

Men's Recurve: N/A

Women's Compound: Ella Gibson, Isabelle Carpenter and Chloe A'Bear

Men's Compound: Ajay Scott, Kai Thomas-Prause, Neil Bridgewater

 

Women's Compound:

Ella Gibson finished qualifying in 3rd place with a score of 602, Chloe A'Bear was 38th with 571 and Isabelle Carpenter was in 41st with a score of 568.

 

Both A'Bear and Carpenter would ultimately fall in the first round - Carpenter losing out against  Mariya Klein (24) 154-151 and A'Bear loring 147-151 against  Andrea Munoz (27).

 

As 3rd seed, Gibson had a first round bye and defeated  Begum Yuva (30) 154-146 in round 2. In the third round, she took out  Meeri-Marita Paas (14) 153-149 to reach the quarter-finals where she ultimately fell to  Alexis Ruiz (6) 152-155.

 

Mixed Compound Team: 

Despite  being the top qualifiers with a score of 1210, Gibson and Scott couldn't repeat their form of the previous World Cup event and lost in the second-round 17th seed  159-163.

 

 

July - Madrid World Cup Stage IV

 

Women's Recurve: Penny Healey, Megan Havers, Thea Rogers & Megan Costall

Men's Recurve: tom Hall, Patrick Huston & Conor Hall

Women's Compound: Ella Gibson

Men's Compound: Ajay Scott, Luke Davis & Thomas Lane

 

Women's Recurve:

Penny Healey qualified in 42nd place with a score of 633 and was the only  qualifier for the knock-out stages. Megan Havers was 69th on 609, Thea Rogers scored 606 to finish in 72nd with Megan Costall just behind her in 73rd also with 606. 

 

In the first round, Healey defeated  Martin Olivia (23) 6-4 but her competition ended in the second round with defeat to  Zhu Jingyi (10) 7-3. 

 

Men's Recurve:

Tom Hall qualified in 37th place with score of 662 with Patrick Huston in 51st with 658. Conor Hall failed to progress finishing in 84th place with a score of 630. 

 

Hall would ultimately fall in the first round against  Li Zhongyuan (28) 6-2 whilst Huston would also exit the competition at this stage, losing out to  Andres Temino Mediel (14) 6-0.

 

Women's Compound:

Ella Gibson finished qualifying in 3rd place with a score of 708.

 

As the 3rd seed, Gibson had a bye to the second round. There she dispatched  Sydney Sullenberger (30) 142-136. In the third round, she defeated  Meeri-Marita Paas (19) 144-143 to progress to the quarter-finals. In the QF, she eased past  Olivia Dean (11) 148-143 to put her in the medal matches. In the semi-finals she defeated  Parneet Kaur (7) to secure her first gold medal match of the World Cup series. In a tight match against the top qualifier  Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Gibson was ultimately able to prevail 148-147 to secure Gold and take her place in the world Cup final after what had been a pretty mediocre season by her standards.

 

Women's Recurve Team:

Healey, Havers and Rogers combined for the team event and qualified in 16th place with score of 1848.  After dispatching 17th seed  5-1 in the first round, they faced top seed  in round 2 and bowed out 6-2. 

 

Men's Recurve Team:

Huston, Hall and Hall qualified in 18th place with score of 1950 and faced 15th seed  in the first round. Despite putting in a decent showing - winning the first two sets to lead 4-0, they ultimately would fall short in the shoot-off. 

 

Mixed Recurve Team:

Penny Healey and tom Hall qualified in 19th with a score of 1295, and they would bow out of the competition in the first round with a defeat at the hands of 14th seed .

 

Mixed Compound Team: 

Gibson and Scott seem to be the established  team and qualified in 4th place with a score of 1417 so had a bye to the second round. There, they eased past 20th seed  154-143 but came unstuck against 12th seed  in the quarterfinals 151-153. 

 

So, after the 4 World Cup stages,  emerge with 3 Gold medals with both Healey and Gibson qualifying for the World Cup Final. 

 

In terms of ranking movement since the start of the year:

 

Name	Event	Ranking 1st Jan	Ranking 14th Jul
	Women's Recurve Team	16th	18th
	Men's Recurve Team	15th	17th
	Mixed Recurve Team	14th	15th
	Mixed Compound Team	11th	3rd
Penny Healey	Women's Recurve	31st	6th
Megan Havers	Women's Recurve	70th	73rd
Imogen Sullivan-Bell	Women's recurve	144th	150th
Louisa Piper	Women's Recurve	242nd	383rd
Thea Rogers	Women's Recurve	249th	268th
Patrick Huston	Men's Recurve	26th	32nd
Tom Hall	Men's Recurve	37th	51st
Conor Hall	Men's Recurve	56th	67th
Monty Orton	Men's Recurve	159th	418th

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

Couple of squad announcements made over the last few weeks.

 

Next week, the archery events at the FISU World University Games will take place in Essen. I've always had the feeling that  doesn't take these kinds of events as seriously as they could or should but, for the first time since 2019, we are sending a team to compete in the archery events. 

 

Selected Squad:

Women's Recurve: Megan Costall & Louisa Piper

Men's Recurve: Callum Piggott

Women's Compound: Grace Chappell, Chloe A'Bear & Hallie Boulton

Men's Compound: Ajay Scott & Finlay Clark

 

the squad for next month's World Youth Championships in Canada has also been announced:

 

Selected Squad:

Under 21 Recurve Women: Penny Healey, Holly Linfield & Megan Havers

Under 21 Recurve Men: Archie Bromley, Edward Gray & Johnny Smart

Under 21 Compound Women: Hallie Boulton, Patience Wood & Mia McGuane

Under 21 Compound Men: Luke Davis, Finlay Clark

Under 18 Recurve Men: Alex Sillitoe Price

Under 18 Compound Women: Chloe Scott, Harriet Beckinsale-Smith & Violet Walker

 

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

Last update for Archery, in May, Archery GB confirmed their World Class Programme Recurve Athletes:

 

Women's Recurve:

Penny Healey

Megan Havers

Megal Costall

Holly Linfield

Thea Rogers

 

Men's Recurve:

Monty Orton

Archie Bromley

Alex Sillitoe-Price

Johnny Smart

Shay Boyd

Edward Gray

 

No huge surprises on the women's side - with Bryony Pitman taking a (hopefully temporary) step away from the sport, Healey and Havers were a shoo-in. 

 

When it comes to the men's squad, I'm sure there is a reason, but it doesn't make a huge amount of sense. Patrick Huston is the top British Archer but didn't make the squad. In fact, none of the top 3 British ranked archers - who are all ranked in the top 100 in the world - made the squad with both Conor Hall and Tom Hall also missing out. Based on this list Archie Bromley, at 208, is the top ranked GB archer. 

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

On 2/12/2025 at 1:10 PM, Rafa Maciel said:

GB Archery have announced that Bryony Pitman, Sarah Bettles and Alex Wise are all leaving the World Class Olympic Programme. 

 

Their departure leaves the squad pretty depleted - to the point that we don't have enough archers to make up a women's team. 

 

Alex Wise is back  - he's not currently listed as part of the performance squad but Team GB site is confirming he's back in competitive action and looking to qualify for LA.

 

Now we just need to get Pitman back in the squad and we could have reasonable qualifying prospects.