‘S-HERTOGENBOSCH, Netherlands – At this week’s World Archery Para Championships, Team USA archers locked up five critical spots for the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
A total of 140 athletes in total will compete in the archery events at the next Paralympics. The number of athletes in each category differs.
More than half of the quota places are won at this world championships, 30 are distributed across three continental qualifiers, and at least 12 are available at the final qualification tournament in 2020. The remaining spots are split between the host country and awarded to smaller para nations on the merit of universality.
With all three U.S. compound open men finishing in the top 16, and with Ben Thompson winning gold, USA maxed out all possible three slots; the only country to earn all three.
Eric Bennett finished with recurve open men’s silver and garnered Team USA a spot at the Games. In the secondary qualification tournament on Friday, Timothy Palumbo secured a second recurve open men’s spot and with his fifth shoot off win of the weekend.
“The team has been working insanely hard this year and all that practice and preparation came true this week,” commented U.S. Paralympic Head Coach George Ryals IV. “The team showed their mettle and proved that they are in this thing together. I can’t wait to see what they do next.”
The W1 and women archers will have additional chances to qualify spots for Team USA next year. While the U.S. secures spots at qualification tournaments, it is the 2020 U.S. Paralympic Team Trials – Archery determine which archers will be nominated to fill those spots. That three-part Trials process begins at the 2020 Arizona Cup next April.
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