Archer grabs spot at Tokyo games

Tokyo-bound Bryony Pitman says balancing studying and shooting can help her teach her Tokyo rivals an archery lesson.

The Shoreham ace has secured a Team GB Olympic spots as part of a threepronged women’s team alongside evergreen Naomi Folkard and fellow debutant Sarah Bettles.

Pitman, 24, juggles archery with a humanities degree at Brunel University but has just a week left ahead of pivoting all her attention towards a crack at glory in Japan.

Pitman, who lives in Shoreham with her parents, has relished the challenge and says lockdown eased the strain ahead of her first Games.

One of more than 1,100 National Lottery-funded elite athletes on UK Sport’s World Class Programme, said: “I’ve been at university, so have been glad I’ve had something else to focus on. Archery hasn’t been my entire life, and I’m having a bit more time to focus on my degree, which has been good.

“It’s been difficult to balance that level of study with all of my training, but we’ve planned it so it’s gone in waves.

“Whenever I had left work at university, I really pushed up my volume of training and when it’s been busy with training, I’ve backed off and focused on quality sessions of training. Now it’s that final push – then I can focus 100 per cent on the Games. I’m incredibly happy to be part of this team and for it to now be official. We can focus on performing and training over the next few months and I’m really looking forward to seeing what we can do.”

The World Class Programme has powered Pitman’s career and allows her to train full-time, access the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering technology, science and medical support. The recurve ace scooped bronze in the team event at the 2019 World Championships and is emerging as the golden girl of British archery.

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