What if… Antalya was the Olympic qualifier?

To be clear before we start: Antalya 2015 has no direct impact on Rio 2016 quota places!

But at Copenhagen 2015, the worlds due to be held at the end of July, the team competition holds extra weight. The top eight recurve men’s and women’s teams win three Olympic quota spots for their nations. 

There are 12 team places available in each category – men and women – at Rio 2016. One of those places is automatically awarded to the host country, Brazil and the remaining three are up for grabs at the final qualifying tournament, scheduled as part of the Archery World Cup stage in Antalya in 2016.

In Copenhagen the rule is pretty simple: Qualify in the top 16, then win one match and you’re in. 

So, who would be in if Antalya 2015 awarded Olympic places, rather than the worlds? 

Not Japan’s men, not Ukraine’s men or women and not the USA women – they’d all be looking from the outside in – as they all lost their first round matches. 

It’s a real eye opener, but not something to panic about. 

“We just need to keep practising. We only need one match,” said USA Coach KI Sik Lee after his recurve women’s team lost 5-3 to Demark. One match after making the top 16 team cut after the ranking round, that is. 

“There are so many luck factors – but we cannot deal with lucky. We’ve just got to prepare.” 

The USA women, featuring young archers Ariel GIBILARO and LaNola PRITCHARD alonged with veteran of five Olympics Khatuna LORIG, seemed to have bonded well in Shanghai. The trio took home silver at their first meet as a team.

“It is not because they are young they were selected but because they are shooting better than everyone else in the country.” 

“I trust my team members,” KI Sik Lee said with absolute confidence. 

Khatuna made the last four at London 2012 and the USA men’s team collected silver, beating Korea in the semifinals on the way. Brady ELLISON shot in those matches, but his new teammates Collin KLIMITCHEK and Zach GARRETT did not. 

Only OH Jin Hyek returned for a Korean team the USA faced in the semifinals in Antalya. It was tight all the way. The States trio shot consistently well and the match was drawn at 3-all heading into the last end. 

The Koreans pulled out a single extra 10 to win the last set and the semifinal, 58-57 and five set points to three. 

China beat France in the other men’s semi. 

For the French team, the improvement from Shanghai is drastic. After dropping two team members – Romain GIROUILLE and Thomas KOENIG – from a squad that did not make the top-16 cut at the first stage of the season, a medal match is a result far more in line with the nation’s expectations. 

India, Spain, defending Olympic Champions Italy and the Netherlands all won their men’s team first round matches, enough in Copenhagen for an Olympic spot, then fell in the second. 

Australia, Germany and Chinese Taipei did not. 

But the biggest first-round loss: India’s women. With Deepika KUMARI returning to form and shooting in the Antalya individual bronze final, a string of poor sets – 50, 51, 50 – had the Indians lose in straight sets to China. 

The previous hosts of the Olympic Games, who received the automatic quota spots as Brazil will for Rio, Great Britain, stole the first set of their first round match from top seeds Korea. 

From then on, the defending Olympic Champion team took over. 

Head of Performance at Archery GB, Oliver LOGAN, said the Brits could take confidence from the strong start to the match but would work on the ranking round just as much as the athletes’ head-to-head game. 

“Qualifying higher gives you a better chance of winning,” he explained. “We’ll be doing some extra training on the lessons we’ve learnt in Antalya and then we have a training camp with the French two weeks before the worlds.” 

“The qualification process for the Olympics is hard but once you are there, anything can happen.” 

It’s been eight years since Great Britain last had to win Olympic quota spots. For Beijing 2008, the country sent a full six-athlete squad. 

Korea’s women continued through the brackets into a stressful last-four match-up with China. 

After jumping 4-0 ahead, too many reds lost KI Bo Bae, CHOI Misun and KANG Chae Young their advantage and put their opponents back in the running – and a shot at the match win in a tiebreaker. 

Twenty-eight played 27 and Korea advanced to a clash to another gold medal final. The other finalist: Japan, who beat Chinese Taipei in straight sets in the semifinals. 

All eight finalists can take confidence from their Antalya performances – but it’s the teams that were on the bubble or sitting out of the eliminations that have serious work to do over the next two months ahead of Copenhagen. 

Read more about Antalya 2015.