Netherlands names 13-strong team for world archery championships in Den Bosch

The Netherlands has announced the names of the 13 athletes that will compete for the home team at the 2019 Hyundai World Archery Championships and World Archery Para Championships taking place in the Dutch city of ’s-Hertogenbosch this June.

Sjef van den Berg, Steve Wijler, Rick van der Ven, Gabriela Bayardo, Sarina Laan and Sietske Visser will compete in the recurve events and look to qualify Olympic places for Tokyo 2020.

Mike Schloesser, Peter Elzinga, Sil Pater, Jody Vermeulen, Sanne de Laat and Inge van Caspel comprise the compound squad.

Roy Klaassen will compete in the compound men’s open division at the para championships.

“This recurve men’s team is the best that the Netherlands has ever had,” said Olympic head coach Ron van der Hoff. “We’ll see if that’s good enough for a medal, which is the goal for that team and the individual archers in that team.”

Sjef and Rick were the fourth-place finishers at the last two Olympic Games, in Rio and in London, while Steve is the current world number two.

“Gold is obviously what we’re aiming for but knowing that there are several top countries, medalling at these world championships will be considered a success,” added Ron.

It is the first time in 52 years that the Hyundai World Archery Championships will be held in the Netherlands. The 24th championships took place in Amersfoort in 1967.

“Having the worlds in the Netherlands will hopefully bring the sport some much-deserved attention with the Dutch people,” said Sjef.

“It’s also nice for us because we’re used to the weather and environment. We have a very strong team, with three world-class archers in the line-up. We will fight for a medal with the team but all of us are very capable of reaching the individual finals, too.”

The Dutch compound squad is led by world number one Mike Schloesser.

He won the world championships in 2013 and has looked on top form so far this season, taking gold at the first stage of the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Medellin, Colombia.

Jody Vermeulen has emerged as a threat in the compound women’s category of late. At her last two international events, the circuit stages in Berlin to close 2018 and Medellin at the start of this season, Vermeulen finished second individually. That has her up to seventh in the world rankings.

There will be high expectations for these championships across the Dutch squad.

“I think it will be one of the best world championships ever but I do not believe there is any added pressure of competing on home soil,” said Ron. “We all feel the excitement of this championships and have the drive to get into the top four spots so we will be able to compete in front of the orange home crowd.”

The 2019 Hyundai World Archery Championships take place on 10-16 June and World Archery Para Championships on 3-9 June in ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.