New Zealand has become the 29th country to book at least one archery quota place at the 2024 Olympic Games, following Ben McLean and Nuala Edmundson’s wins at Oceania’s continental qualifying tournament last weekend in Auckland.
Archers from Fiji, Samoa and Tonga competed, with Australia having already booked two individual spots by winning the mixed team event at the Pacific Games.
“I’m proud and honoured to have made it through to the final. I feel really humbled to have won,” said 19-year-old Edmundson after beating compatriot Julia Harrison, 10-7 in a tiebreak. “I have big goals and I’m going to do whatever it takes to achieve them.”
Both their recurve women’s final and the recurve men’s – McLean 7-3 Finn Matheson – were contested by archers from New Zealand.
Should the places won here need to be reallocated, either by New Zealand upgrading to a team space or declining a ticket, bronze medallists Arne Jensen (Tonga) and Chaandvi Prasad (Fiji) will become the next eligible for the quotas.
Olympic qualifying continues in the Americas in early April.
