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In the shadow of Napoleon’s tomb, a 16-year-old from Leicester became the first Team GB athlete to compete at Paris 2024.
Megan Havers, who attended her school prom just a few weeks ago, fired the first shot in anger in the women’s archery ranking round.
“I like to shoot first, so I don’t get in my own head, that’s my rule,” said Havers. “It’s a cool thing to be the first athlete to compete, but I didn’t do it deliberately!”
It is fitting that a teenager got Team GB underway, given there are 14 of them in the squad and that these Games signal the passing of the baton from the London 2012 generation.
Wearing a colourful bracelet made by her school friend Eva, the bucket hat-wearing Havers barely broke sweat on a toasty day in Paris.
“My English GCSE was harder than that,” joked Havers, who hasn’t even picked up her results yet. “That definitely took more out of me.
“I came onto this field today and I didn’t feel the nerves. I can officially say I’m an Olympian now, which is really cool to say. I’ve got a lot more Olympics in me, I hope.”
The archery ranking round is a curiosity of the Olympic Games.
The traditional pre-Opening Ceremony curtain-raiser is neither televised nor ticketed and involves all 128 archers shooting 72 arrows each on the same field, with total scores producing seedings for individual and team competition.
Hundreds of journalists gaggled behind the range, peering vaguely at a target more than 100 metres away and doing so for three hours, with no in-venue live scoring offering updates. It is fair to say there will be better spectacles in the next fortnight.
A cheer did go up when the first world record of the Games fell at the hands of Korean Lim Sihyeon, who shot 694 to surpass compatriot Kang Chae Young’s previous mark of 692 set in 2019.
Powerhouse Korea have won all nine Olympic titles in the women’s team since the sport’s inclusion at Seoul 1988.
The country’s Olympic trials are infamously brutal. If you don’t turn up on the day, you don’t make it and An San missed out on Paris altogether despite becoming the first archer to win three Olympic golds at one Games at Tokyo 2020.
The trials produced a team of Lim, last year’s breakout star, and rookies Jeon Hunyoung and Nam Suhyeon, who have only one World Championship cap between them.
Even so, Nam finished second behind Lim and Jeon placed 13th to earn them top seeding for Sunday’s women’s team event where they will bid for a tenth successive victory.
Korea’s success is thanks to world-leading facilities and a professional infrastructure that is the envy of the world - including Team GB’s Bryony Pitman.
“I don’t think anyone would really expect anything less (than a world record),” said Pitman.
“The money that they put into it is just unlike any other country. They have professional teams. I think the last few months, they’ve had a replica Paris stage set up and they’ve been shooting against a robot that just puts them in the tens all the time.
“They are as prepared as you could possibly be for an Olympic Games.”
Tokyo Olympian Pitman finished 41st, Havers 49th and Penny Healey 52nd with Team GB seeded 11th out of 12 teams for the women’s team.
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