Reportages

Back to back continental titles for defending European champions?

03 juin 2022

Munich, Germany

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Lisa Barbelin celebrating at Antalya 2021

Exactly a year ago, the 26th edition of the European Archery Championships was held in Antalya, Turkey – one year delayed from its original slot in 2020 into 2021 due to the worldwide pandemic.

Lisa Barbelin of France (recurve women), Spain’s Pablo Acha (recurve men), Turkey’s Yakup Yildiz (compound men) and Tanja Gellenthien from Denmark (compound women) left Turkey with the individual titles.

But that event didn’t just have continental titles on offer – it was also one of the last opportunities to secure quota places for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. France’s Lisa Barbelin did both, winning the individual title and an Olympic ticket, in a statement event as the then 21-year-old announced herself on the world outdoor stage.

Team medals at both youth and junior levels had come before, but her straight-set European final win over Karyna Dziominskaya final was her best.

The gold medal was France’s first European individual title since Berengere Schuh in 2008. It also pushed her up to number one in the world rankings.

Since then, the now world number four has had more mixed results.

“My head is full of stars and I can't wait to shine like the sun,” she recently posted on her social media. This was not surprising following a ninth-place finish in Tokyo and two middle-of-the-pack rankings in the 2022 Hyundai Archery World Cup so far – 33rd in Antalya and ninth in Gwangju.

But at the start of the year, she was crowned European Indoor Champion. Can she find her form and retain her continental crown next week?

European recurve men's individual champion Pablo Acha has also started this year’s circuit slowly, not finishing higher than 17th internationally so far.

His 2021 European Championship recurve men’s individual gold came when he defeated Galsan Bazarzhapov, 6-4, in the final after the pair entered the fifth set tied at four apiece. It added to a mixed team bronze secured earlier at the same event.

“I’m really proud of myself, my coach and every member of the team and the staff,” he said after claiming gold. “They’re the reason I’m calm in these situations and in control under pressure. They’re the reason I’m European Champion.”

Acha will face stiff competition in Munich this year if he hopes to retain his title – starting with one of his own teammates: Miguel Alvarino Garcia.

Both Alvarino and Acha were named as part of the Spanish team for 2022 after both missed out on a ticket to last year’s Olympics, where Danny Castro filled the lone Spanish men’s ticket. Alvarino has impressed this season, already medalling in both stages of the Hyundai Archery World Cup held so far.

Acha has also won a 2022 Hyundai Archery World Cup stage medal – but only with Alvarino and Castro in the recurve men’s team event, Spain taking bronze in Gwangju.

Alvarino is the apparent hot hand in Spain. Acha describes last year as “…a season that I have lived through everything and learned everything.”

It’s time for Pablo to put that education to good use in Germany.

The top two seeds in the compound women’s competition went head-to-head in the final in 2021, with Great Britain’s Ella Gibson facing Denmark’s Tanja Gellenthien. The Dane won easily, 147-141.

Gibson and Gellenthien have each only competed in one Hyundai Archery World Cup stage so far this year, with European Indoor Champion Gibson winning the season opener and Gellenthien finishing ninth in stage two.

Gellenthien has been spending most of her time in the USA with her husband, Braden, recently buying her first-ever car so she can drive to the numerous domestic tournaments she is competing in – she is squeezing in a big 3D shoot at the weekend before flying to Munich. It’s hard to switch between formats so regularly – and Ella has been delivering improvement on improvement in her results.

The two compound women’s favourites might be the same, 12 months on, but the outcome might be very different.

Yakup Yildiz was a surprise winner of the Europeans last year – and the only home gold medallist in the individual events – when he defeated Gellenthien’s Danish teammate, Mathias Fullerton, 143-141 in the compound men’s final. Yildiz shot only one of two perfect 150s in the whole of the competition on the way to gold, his second of two, following a win for Turkey in the team event.

“I feel really proud,” said the then 18-year-old. “It’s a really great thing to have this medal at my age. I’m so happy right now, I can’t even explain it.”

It’s been back-to-back 17th-place finishes for Yakup so far on the international circuit. Munich offers a shot to get back on top.

Russia will not defend its recurve women’s team and recurve mixed team titles in Munich due to the country’s ongoing prohibition from competing.

That leaves host Germany as the favourite to go one between than the recurve women’s team silver won in 2021.

The team is without Lisa Unruh, but the form shown by Michelle Kroppen, Charline Schwarz and the impressive Katharina Bauer so far this year strongly suggests another podium. The trio has already taken back-to-back silver medals on the Hyundai Archery World Cup circuit in 2022 – and Bauer won an historic mixed team gold with Felix Wieser (who isn't competing in Munich) in Gwangju.

Having won the recurve men’s team event in 2021, the Netherlands is missing a key member of its rotation this season, following the post-Olympic retirement of Sjef van den Berg. Sjef, instead, will be manning the international feed commentary spot for the event as lead English analyst.

Emotion will be with Ukraine as the team, which is currently living and training in Germany, looks to go one better than its recurve men’s team silver from 2021. Olympian Oleksii Hunbin and Ivan Kozhokar return to European action in very different circumstances to 12 months ago.

France and Belgium took the compound women’s team and compound mixed team gold medals, respectively, in 2021.

Neither team deserved to be written off for a repeat this time around.

Action from the European Championships starts with qualifying on Tuesday.