8 June 2009

Nicky Hunt, the Be Number 1 compound archer who created history last month by becoming the first British archer to claim victory in an individual World Cup event, maintained her chances of qualifying for September’s prestigious World Cup final in Copenhagen by finishing fifth in Antalya, Turkey in the third of the four regular-season legs.

Hunt lost in the quarter-finals to Venezuela’s Luzmary Guedez, the eventual winner, by a 116-113 margin in a high-quality contest in which Guedez had scored a perfect 60 by the halfway mark. Not that Hunt, who trailed by two points at the midway stage, was a slouch by comparison. The Briton’s final score was, by a distance, the best by a quarter-final loser and would have been easily good enough to defeat Olga Bosch, the eventual runner-up, who won her last-eight match despite totalling only 110 points.

The upshot is that Hunt, who secured 13 points for her efforts, lies in fifth place in the overall World Cup standings, just a point behind Jamie van Natta in fourth spot and 11 behind Bosch and Ivana Buden, the joint leaders.

With just the one regular-season event, which will be held in Shanghai in August, remaining, Hunt has an excellent chance of gaining the overall top-four place that is necessary to qualify for Copenhagen.

Only the three best results over the four legs count towards qualification and the Ipswich archer has competed in two of the first three events whereas the four women ahead of her in the standings have participated in all three. British compound archers did not compete in the first event of the series, which was held in the Dominican Republic in April, because of a lack of funding.

“As long as we can find the money, I will be competing in Shanghai – and I have been told to take the time off work,” said Hunt, who works as a full-time physiotherapist.

“I can’t be too unhappy by finishing fifth in Turkey. But after my recent performances, I suppose it was slightly disappointing not to qualify for the last four at least. And especially as the semi-finals and final took place on the beach in front of television cameras and a large crowd, whereas the contests up to the quarter-finals took place in a field about a mile away.

“I reckon that a top-six finish in Shanghai should be good enough for me to qualify for Copenhagen, although it could depend on how other archers do – and always assuming that finances will allow me to compete in China.”