As host nation of Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Brazil has full team quota places guaranteed in both the men’s and women’s competitions.
To choose the Olympic team, the Brazilian Archery Federation established a two stage selection procedure, which couples four selection shoots with results from international competition at the second and third legs of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Medellin and Antalya.
The 10 best female and male athletes from Brazil started the selection process. Only the top four athletes in each category qualified for the second stage. The top two were automatically qualified, while the other two were chosen by a technical commission.
After the last selection shoot concluded on Sunday 1 May, Nanjing 2014 silver medallist Marcus D’Almeida, Bernardo Olivera, Ane Marcelle dos Santos and Sarah Nikitin were officially confirmed as the first four athletes qualified for the last stage of the Olympic procedure.
“It would be a great honour to get to represent Brazil at the Olympics,” said Ane Marcelle. “I’m happy to make the final four. We have a good chance to get a medal with the team and we are training hard to make it happen.
“This is great feeling,” added Marcus. “This would be my first time at the Olympics and at home. If they were held in other country they will be good as well, but at home it’s great as we’ll have people cheering us on.”
“We are preparing hard, we are getting ready and there’s still part of the selection procedure to go before we know who will be on the team. We’ll keep training hard for it,” the Lausanne 2014 Archery World Cup Final silver medallist concluded.
From Monday 2 May to Thursday 4 May, the technical commission had meetings to analyse results based on the needs of the team at the Olympics.
On Thursday 5 May it was announced that the remaining four athletes would be Olympian Daniel Rezende, Marcelo da Silva, Michelle Acquesta and Marina Canetta.
“The four men that have been chosen were the top four at the shoot selection, but the women’s we did something different,” explained Evandro de Azevedo, head coach of the Brazilian team.
“We chose Marina and Michelle based on what is best for the team, thinking about the chance of getting a medal at the Olympics, not necessarily on scores or best past results. Both Marina and Michelle have been on the international team and they have good relationships with Sarah and Ane.”
The second stage of Brazil’s Olympic selection will continue with the eight-strong team competing at the second and third stages of the 2016 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Medellin and Antalya, as well as two training camps in Spain and the Netherlands.
The official Olympic team, made up of three men and three women, will be announced in July.
