A TEAM GB athlete who has bowed out of the Olympics without a medal said the “emotional rollercoaster” event has set up her up well for the next games.
Bryony Pitman, from Shoreham, finished ninth overall in the archery individual competition.
The 24-year-old was one of six archers who represented Team GB at the delayed Tokyo Olympics.
Having beaten two higher ranked opponents to reach the last 16, Bryony, the youngest member of the women's GB archery team, faced Elena Osipova for a place in the quarter final.
The Russian athlete had already won the Olympic silver medal in the Women’s Team Recurve Competition in Tokyo and won gold in both the Women's Ream Recurve and Mixed Team Recurve events at the 2021 European Archery Championship.
Elena Osipova went on to reach the final and win the silver medal.
Bryony, who is also undertaking a humanities degree at Brunel University, took to social media to share her take on her first Olympics.
In a post on Instagram, she said: “Safe to say my competition in Tokyo was an emotional rollercoaster. I know I could’ve scored better but I’m fairly happy with a 9th place finish at my first games.
“The whole Olympic experience has been incredible and I enjoyed every moment. I’ve learnt so much about my strengths and weaknesses performing on that big stage and I’m excited to work even harder for 2024.
“A few special thank yous though, to my parents for always being everything I could possibly need and to my brothers for putting up with non-stop archery talk and being my cheerleaders (most of the time).
“Thank you to my teammates for their friendship and support over the last few years, we’ve really pushed each other and grown as a team. Thanks especially to @sarah.tgk for being an absolute star as a coach in my matches and also as our team manager.”
The recurve ace is no stranger to big competitions having won bronze at the 2019 World Championships, gold at the 2019 European Games and competed at the 2014 Youth Olympics.
Born and raised in Shoreham-by-Sea, Bryony previously credited her accomplishments to date to her upbringing, local coaches and past family success.
“I’ve lived there my whole life,” she said. “My archery club is Worthing and they’ve been so good to me since I started there when I was 11.
“Representing Sussex was my first goal in archery and all the people I met on the junior and senior county team have always been so supportive of me.
“My dad competed for Great Britain, so I grew up around his stories and all the medals. I always thought it sounded cool so I wanted to do the same.”
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