The US Virgin Islands’ Nicholas D’Amour (673) pipped the host’s Santiago Arcila (672) to recurve men’s top seed over the 72-arrow 70-metre round at the Americas’ continental qualifying event for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games this morning in Medellin, Colombia.
Canadian duo Kristine Esebua (645), formerly a world championship medallist with Georgia, and Virginie Chenier (644) paced the women.
Four individual spots – two for men and two for women – will be awarded by the end of tomorrow’s competition, but each nation can only win a maximum of one in this event.
D’Amour was given a universality invitation to the last Olympics.
“As long I’m there and I feel like I’ve earned it, and I feel I can give my best performance,” he said ater securing pole. He’s the highest-ranked recurve man competing at 11th in the world.
“It’s never easy to win an Olympic spot. The pressure of qualifying for the Olympics is big for a lot of people. It’s always about whoever controls that pressure the best.”
El Salvador’s Oscar Ticas is also in the mix, seeding third with 661 points.
He qualified a quota for the Rio 2016 Olympics eight years ago in Medellin before testing positive for a banned substance, having the ticket revoked and receiving a one-year ban.
Competition continues with eliminations down to a last eight this afternoon at the Unidad Deportiva de Belen.
