Preview: Olympic qualification set to resume at Pan Am Championships

A year ago, we were scheduled to depart for the Mexican city of Monterrey, where the Olympic and Paralympic qualification process would continue and Pan American Champions would be crowned. Then the pandemic arrived, and archery went on a six-month competition hiatus.

Fast forward to 2021, and things are beginning to return to normality. Finally, the race toward the postponed Games in Tokyo can continue.

Teams from 20 countries will shoot at next week’s Pan American Championships under the strict post-pandemic regulations set by World Archery and local health authorities. The host, Mexico, is expected to field a characteristically strong roster, having three reigning Pan Am Champions. Among the visitors are Pan Am Games Champions Sara Lopez of Colombia and Roberto Hernandez of El Salvador.

It’s great to be back.

Key information

What’s happening? The Pan and Para Pan American Championships, plus Olympic and Paralympic continental qualifiers, on 22-28 March 2021 in Monterrey, Mexico.

What’s at stake? Continental champion titles, six quota places (three men and three women) for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and 10 quota places for the Paralympic Games.

What’s the story? Uncertainty surrounding travel plans means this might be the last opportunity for some archers in the Americas to qualify for the Games. Expect competition for the quota places to be fierce.

Schedule

• Tuesday 23 March: Qualification
• Wednesday 24 March: Mixed team finals
• Thursday 25 March: Team finals
• Friday 26 March: Paralympic qualification and para finals
• Saturday 27 March: Olympic qualification
• Sunday 28 March: Individual finals

How to watch

Broadcasts of the Olympic qualification and finals of the 2021 Pan American Championships is being shown by Claro across Latin America. Internationally, the following sessions are being streamed on World Archery’s YouTube channel and by the Olympic Channel.

• Live: Olympic qualification – 27 March, starting at 13h00 CST (local)
• Live: Compound finals – 28 March, starting at 9h00 CST (local)
• Live: Recurve finals – 28 March, starting at 13h00 CST (local)

Live scores will be available on the World Archery website, and there will be coverage on World Archery’s digital platforms throughout the competition.

Tokyo 2020 qualification

There are six quota places for the Olympics available in Monterrey, three for recurve men and three for recurve women. The spots will be awarded in a dedicated tournament, the deciding matches of which will take place on Saturday 27 March.

There are 10 quota places for the Paralympics available in Monterrey, five for each gender split as follows: two recurve open, two compound open and one W1. These will be awarded on the results of the para archery categories in the Pan American Championships, the finals of which will take place on Friday 26 March.

Barebow on board

Monterrey marks the first major international target archery event to include barebow competitions, following the addition of the bowstyle to the discipline’s rules at the start of 2019.

Seven men and three women are registered to compete for the barebow’s first continental champion titles. 

Who’s competing?

These are the defending Pan American Champions:

• Recurve men: Ernesto Boardman, Mexico (not competing)
• Recurve women: Alejandra Valencia, Mexico
• Compound men: Antonio Hidalgo, Mexico
• Compound women: Sara Lopez, Colombia

These are the top-ranked archers competing in Monterrey:

• Recurve men: Marcus D’Almeida, Brazil (world rank: 18)
• Recurve women: Alejandra Valencia, Mexico (world rank: 19)
• Compound men: Daniel Munoz, Colombia (world rank: 7)
• Compound women: Sara Lopez, Colombia (world rank: 2)

A total of 167 archers from the national teams of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, USA, the US Virgin Islands and Venezuela are registered for this tournament.

Competition at the Pan and Para Pan American Championships starts with qualification on Tuesday.