Porec promises indication of post-pandemic level in Olympic year

This week’s European Grand Prix in Porec will be the largest international outdoor event since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tournament is being run to the strict procedures set by World Archery to protect athlete wellbeing and local health guidelines – covering testing, social distancing and logistics – but there’s still more than 180 archers from 23 countries at this world-ranking tournament, with some world-class teams and big names among the entrants.

Squads representing France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia and Turkey have made the trip to the Istrian Peninsula in Croatia.

Olympic contenders like Mete Gazoz, Ksenia Perova and Steve Wijler – who are all ranked in the top 10 in the world in their respective categories – haven’t been seen in outdoor competition since the very end of 2019. This event will be the first indication of how they rate after the long hiatus.

The world rankings have been frozen since 1 April 2020. That’s expected to end soon. There are world-ranking points on offer in Porec.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games are just over four months away. It’s not going to be an easy season, especially when preparing for such a monumental event, and every competition arrow counts. March might be early in the season in any other year – but it feels late in 2021.

This tournament only includes an individual event and no mixed team or team competitions, following the current guidelines.

Porec previously hosted a stage of the Archery World Cup in 2006 and from 2008 to 2011.

Factsheet

• Event: European Grand Prix
• City: Porec, Croatia
• Dates: 17-20 March 2021

What’s at stake: World ranking points for the first time in 2021 and one of the last times before the end of the ranking freeze.

What to watch for: How athletes perform in competition after such a long international break.

How to watch

World Archery will stream the individual finals live on its YouTube channel at 11h00 CET (local) on Saturday 20 March. Live scores will be available on the World Archery website and coverage across World Archery’s digital platforms throughout the competition.

Schedule

• Wednesday 17 March: Qualification
• Thursday 18 March: Individual eliminations (early rounds)
• Friday 19 March: Individual eliminations
• Saturday 20 March: Finals

Who’s competing?

These are the top-ranked archers competing in Porec:

• Recurve men: Mete Gazoz, Turkey (world rank: 5)
• Recurve women: Ksenia Perova, Russia (world rank: 8)
• Compound men: Mike Schloesser, Netherlands (world rank: 2)
• Compound women: Yesim Bostan, Turkey (world rank: 6)

A total of 181 archers from the national teams of Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine are registered for this tournament.

Competition at the European Grand Prix in Porec starts with qualification on Wednesday.