Jan van Tongeren, youngest man at the Aquece Rio archery challenge

Jan van Tongeren, from the Netherlands, is the youngest man competing at the Olympic test event in Rio. Seeded 26th with 656 points after the ranking round, Jan shot against teammate Rick van der Ven – who finished fourth at the London 2012 Games – in the first round.

Jan started the match with a perfect 10 – against Rick’s nine – and soon led the clash, 2-0 on set points. In the second set, Jan shot an eight and Rick used it as an advantage to tie things up.

Over the next two sets, the youngest archer on the Rio men’s competition field twice shot 10, 10, nine – for a total of 29 points – to beat world silver medallist Rick, 6-2.

His next opponent was Olympic Champion Oh Jin Hyek. An opponent who, said Jan, is the same as any other archer he could face.

“There’s no difference,” he said. “He is the Olympic Champion but he trains, competes, wins and loses just the same as any of us.”

Jan lost to Oh in straight sets.

“Oh Jin Hyek shot great. I had some technical problem, but it was still a great opportunity for me,” he said.

As well as competing with and beating an experienced teammate and going toe-to-toe with someone who’s won it all, Jan’s first Olympic experience was an acclimitisation exercise. Jan had the chance to check up on the city, the venue and to imagine how the Olympic Games might feel.

“Rio it’s a beautiful city. The weather is very different – it’s never this hot at home! It’s a really nice location and I think that with more people on the stands it could be really awesome.”

“I still need to qualify to make the team, but it’s been a really good feeling so far in Rio,” the young Dutchman concluded.

One member of a deep, and young, Netherlands Olympic squad. Jan now has the long road of qualifying for the Games to begin, if he wants to experince that Olympic feeling in full.