ranked 11th in the World in Stage 3 of the World Cup, Antalya, Turkey. (Submitted photo)
The final Olympic quota tournament and World Cup Stage 3 were contested over the past ten days in Antalya, Turkey. The Paris 2024 Olympics are less than one month away and the 10-month-long process of winning tickets to compete at the games reached a dramatic conclusion last week.
More than 300 recurve archers from 80-plus nations took to the shooting line on June 14-17 to compete for the last 40 quota places, including the last much-coveted team tickets. Having qualified for the Olympics at the Pan American Championships in April of this year, Nicholas D’Amour did not participate in the final qualifier for the Olympics in Antalya but did have a strong finish at Stage 3 of the World Cup. After the forty quota places were handed out based on performances at the final qualifier, all that remains are the world ranking and the universality quotas, which will be decided in the coming week, according to the press release.
At Stage 3 of the World Cup, 381 archers from 54 countries participated in five days of competitions, including individual, team, and mixed team competitions, in this world-ranking event. In the men’s Olympic recurve division, 137 archers fought for the title of Male Recurve Champion, the press release stated.
With the competition ramping up for the Olympics, the scores continued to improve. Competing in 100-plus-degree temperatures, D’Amour of the Virgin Islands more than held his own with a qualification score of 661 and ranking 56 in the Qualification Round. Since he made the cut at 64, he went on to face 9th-ranked Mauro Nespoli of Italy (who is presently ranked 5th in the World) in the first round of eliminations. In a closely fought round, Nicholas lost 6 to 2. Nespoli went on to finish the World Cup in fourth place, the release stated.
Ann Abernathy competed in the Qualifier and the World Cup for the Virgin Islands. Next on his schedule, D’Amour and Team Virgin Islands are headed to the 2024 Paris Olympics, it said.
