Bumper breakthrough for Britain’s Bryony Pitman in Turkey

Bryony Pitman had a breakthrough last day in Antalya at the first stage of the 2022 Hyundai Archery World Cup, winning recurve women’s gold this afternoon to make it a trio of medals following the recurve women’s team gold and recurve mixed team silver she won this morning.

“It’s just the perfect way to end today, this week,” said an overjoyed Pitman immediately after her individual match. “I’m shaking so much. It was a tough match but I am really proud of how I shot out there, I let a couple of shots go but I’m so happy.”

The British archer’s final against Laura van der Winkel went to a tiebreak, Pitman overcoming a six and a five in the early sets and a 2-4 deficit to draw level at the end of regulation. With Pitman drawn second in the shoot-off, the opportunity was in her hands to claim a ticket to the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final in Mexico later this year.

After her Dutch opponent shot an eight, and with nerves racing, Pitman also shot an eight – closer to the middle, to win the title.

“I was just trying to shoot a good shot,” said the 25-year-old about the final arrow. “I know after the last set I had been putting in some really good shots and they were going in the middle so it was just a case of knowing that the door was open and knowing that I just needed to shoot a good shot and hope for the best.”

The result capped off a successful week for the British squad in Antalya, which has been rejigged for the new season.

Pitman was in no doubt that the squad would be taking some kind of medal back home, but admitted that she didn’t predict so many for her personally.

“I certainly expected and knew that we had the potential to be on the podium at least once this weekend,” she said. “I knew I had an individual capability to make the top eight, but to be going away with three medals and two of them gold is just insane.”

“Hopefully, this is the start of putting Great Britain back on the podium regularly.”

Pitman’s result came just one day after Ella Gibson became the first British archer in 12 years to win a stage of the tour.

The country has never had two individual winners at one leg of the Hyundai Archery World Cup.

In the all-German recurve women’s bronze medal match, Katharina Bauer podiumed for the fourth time this month in Antalya, defeating teammate Charline Schwarz 6-2. Bauer had won all three of her events at the Antalya World Cup warm-up in early April.

The Hyundai Archery World Cup returns for stage two next month in Gwangju.

Podiums: Antalya 2022

Check full results on the World Archery website.

Recurve women

1. Bryony Pitman, Great Britain
2. Laura van der Winkel, Netherlands
3. Katharina Bauer, Germany