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France names recurve teams for Berlin, Limerick; paras for Pilsen

26 June 2023

Paris, France

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Audrey Adiceom, Lisa Barbelin and Caroline Lopez named recurve women’s team for Berlin 2023.

The French recurve archers heading to the Hyundai World Archery Championships and World Archery Youth Championships, as well as those who will take part in the World Archery Para Championships, were announced last week.

The compound squads were announced a few weeks ago.

The team at the World Archery Championships in Berlin at the start of August will comprise the archers who competed at stages of the Hyundai Archery World Cup this season. These same six athletes are currently competing at the European Games in Krakow, Poland, where Jean-Charles Valladont carried his nation’s flag at the opening ceremony on 22 June.

“It’s a great pleasure to be selected for these last world championships before Paris 2024,” he said from Krakow. “It’s a big rehearsal on a real scale, even bigger than the one we’ll see at the Olympics.”

A silver medallist from the first World Cup stage in Antalya in April, Valladont will provide experience to young teammates, and first-timers, Baptiste Addis and Nicolas Bernardi, aged 16 and 20 respectively.

“I’m very happy and honoured by the trust placed in me by the federation,” Bernardi said. “This is going to be my first senior world championship, so I’m mixed between excitement and stress. I hope not to get carried away and to get the most out of this event.”

The women’s roster comprises Audrey Adiceom, Lisa Barbelin and Caroline Lopez.

Recurve men’s French team at Krakow 2023 European Games.

Valladont has been a permanent fixture in the French recurve men’s team and has not missed an edition of the World Archery Championships since Ulsan 2009. This will be the 34-year-old’s eighth consecutive world outdoors, and a 14th championships with indoor and field included.

“It’s good preparation, as it will be held in Europe with the same kind of weather and timing conditions,” Valladont said. “It’s a great discovery for this new team that could potentially be at the Games next year in Paris.”

“We’re going to try and grasp the nettle as best we can so that we can gain more and more experience and confidence to sharpen our arrows until these home Games.”

Barbelin and Adiceom will both compete at a third World Archery Championships, while 19-year-old Lopez will make her debut in Berlin.

Members of the same club, the trio know each other well. After winning recurve women’s team bronze at the first stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Antalya this season, they’ve just gone one better at the European Games with silver this Saturday.

“I’m very happy and proud to be part of the French team for this world championship,” Adiceom said. “We’ve still got a month’s work to do after the European Games to prepare ourselves in the best possible way.”

“I think we can achieve great things with this team, both for the girls and the boys.”

Guillaume Toucoullet finished fourth at the Roma 2022 European Para Archery Championships.

Addis (under 18), Bernardi and Lopez (under 21) are also among the 12 athletes selected for the world youth championships on 3-9 July in Ireland.

“I’m going there with the aim of performing well but also of preparing myself for the senior world,” Bernardi said. “I hope to enjoy myself 100% at this last youth competition and to have a good time with all my French colleagues and those from other countries.”

The junior squad in Limerick will also include Iban Bariteaud, the under-18 world champion from two years ago, who now competes in the upper category.

Following trials held last weekend in Richelieu during the national para archery championships, seven archers were also named for the upcoming para world championships, taking place on 17-23 July in Pilsen, Czech Republic.

Among them is Guillaume Toucoullet, the world number one in the recurve men’s category, as well as W1 archer Damien Letulle. A Paralympian from Tokyo 2020, Toucoullet will defend his world silver medal from Dubai last year.

Letulle attended two World Archery Championships back in 1995 and 1997 and the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games before an accident in November 1997 left him quadriplegic. The 50-year-old will compete in his first para worlds in 2023 with his sights already set on a possible first Paralympic cap next year at a home Games.