France picks up two Paralympic places in Euros

The 2016 Para-Archery European Championships held 2-10 April in Saint Jean de Monts, France, was one of the last continental qualification tournaments for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

At the Championships – a Continental Qualification Tournament (CQT) – the highest ranked athletes not otherwise qualified in each of the individual medal event obtains one slot for their country.

There were no major surprises in the event, where nine quota places for Rio 2016 were assigned. Russia and Italy led the team competition and claimed four team medals each, showing similar form to the Donaueschingen 2015 World Archery Para Championships held last August in Germany.

France added two quota places for the Games and now has four total slots. Elisabeth Barleon and Maxime Guérin added spaces for the host nation in the women’s W1 and recurve men’s open competitions, respectively.

Germany, which also had two Rio places after the Worlds, added another place, thanks to Lucia Kupczyk’s finish in the women’s compound open. Slovakia brought their quota total to two, with Peter Kinik’s finish in the men’s W1.

Zehra Ozbey Torun and Merve Nur Eroglu helped Turkey qualify a pair of athletes in the recurve women’s open event to add to the three compound open spaces already won (two men’s and one women’s).

Quota-rich countries in Italy (eight), Great Britain (nine), and Russia (10), each took another slot in France.

Top-ranked Italian archery Eleonora Sarti was left off the medal stand in the compound women’s open, with Russia’s Tatiana Andrievskaia winning gold. Turkey’s Handan Biroglu claimed silver and Russia’s Stepanida Artakhinova taking bronze.

Sarti did win a silver medal in the compound open mixed-team event.

Russia’s Svetlana Barantseva claimed her first major gold medals in the recurve women’s open individual and team events. Male star David Drahoninsky of the Czech Republic won gold in the W1.

Any place won is attributed to the National Paralympic Committee (NPC), rather than the athlete him or herself. The NPC must then accept the place ahead of the sport entries deadline for Rio.

The Czech Target 2016 tournament, being held on 11-20 June, is the final opportunity for countries to win places to the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

For complete results from the Saint Jean de Monts 2016 European Para Archery Championships, visit World Archery’s website. An updated Rio 2016 Paralympic quota tracker in archery is also available online.