Header image courtesy Para Archery Euro 2016/Facebook.
The Saint Jean de Monts 2016 European Para Archery Championships was also the last of the three continental qualification tournaments for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
Nine spots were up for grabs at the event, with only the eligible nations taking part in a secondary quota tournament on the morning of 6 April.
France doubled its quota places to the Games thanks to Elisabeth Barleon and Maxime Guérin adding spaces for the host nation in the women’s W1 and recurve men’s open competitions, respectively. They tally with the two places France won at the Donaueschingen 2015 World Archery Para Championships.
Germany, which also had two Rio places after the worlds, added another place, as did Slovakia, bringing its total to two.
Turkey qualified a pair of athletes in the recurve women’s open event in Saint Jean de Monts, with both reaching the final of the quota tournament, to add to the three compound open spaces already won (two men’s and one women’s).
Quota-place rich countries Italy (eight), Great Britain (nine) and Russia (10), each took another place in France.
Rio 2016 Paralympics – European CQT
- Elisabeth Barleon
(Women’s W1) - Alessandro Erario
(recurve men’s open) - Merve Nur Eroglu
(Recurve Women’s open) - Maxime Guérin (Recurve men’s open)
- Peter Kinik
(Men’s w1) - Lucia Kupczyk
(Compound women’s open) - Nathan MacQueen
(Compound men’s open) - Zehra Ozbey Torun (recurve women’s open)
- Aleksander Zubar
(Compound men’s open)
Any place won is attributed to the National Paralympic Committee of the athlete that won it, rather than the athlete him or herself. The National Paralympic Committee must then accept the place ahead of the sport entries deadline for Rio.
The Czech Target 2016 tournament, being held on 11-20 June 2016, is the last chance for countries to win places to the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
Competition continues at the 2016 European Para Archery Championships with eliminations on Thursday 7 and Friday 8, followed by team and mixed team finals on Saturday 9 and individual gold and bronze medal matches on Sunday 10 April.
