SARAH BETTLES, JAMES WOODGATE, NAOMI FOLKARD, PATRICK HUSTON, BRYONY PITMAN, TOM HALL
CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES / MICHAEL STEELE
Great Britain qualified the maximum six places for Tokyo at the last World Championships in Den Bosch in summer 2019, when both the men’s and women’s teams managed to win the first match in the team competition, which is the primary entry route for the Summer Olympics. They were the only European team to qualify all six spots. In the space of little more than half an hour, they essentially changed the direction of British archery, partly because the full qualification helped to secure performance funding for the next Olympic cycle. (The editor has written previously about how that single team match at the World Championships is actually more important, for most countries, than whatever happens at the Games).