ARCHERY: After a strong week of training in Rio confidence is growing amongst the Australian archery team.

London 2012 Olympian Taylor Worth and Olympic debutants Ryan Tyack, Alec Potts and Alice Ingley have shot some promising scores in training and are ready to go for Friday’s ranking round.

The trio have had two training sessions on the Rio 2016 field of play and have been shooting hundreds of arrows on the ranking round field.

“I’ve shot a lot of ranking scores and they’ve been showing a nice clear upwards trend and I’m hoping that continues through our ranking and our match results also,” Potts said.

“The first week I was quite complacent with my shooting but now I’m starting to really hone in on the target and know what you body is doing,” added Ingley.

“I’m quite confident heading in as my form has been consistent of late. I’m going to go out to achieve a PB and if I do what I’m doing in training I’ll be happy, if I do more I’ll be even happier again.”

After numerous days of Rio sunshine the team was shooting in drizzle at the Sambodromo but believed this could be of benefit to their Rio campaign.

“Between yesterday and today there was a lot of wind at one point, not much wind at another point and then rain as well,” Ingley said.

“You have to experience those conditions at a venue before you know how to adapt to it. To have now done that I’m confident in what I will have to do in each situation.”

The ranking round is the first Rio 2016 event to be held in the host city and determines the seedings for both the individual and team competitions.

Tyack, Potts and Worth form the men’s team in Rio and they’ll be looking to combine for a top four finish in the ranking round to progress straight through to the quarter-finals.

“It’s in the back of our minds,” Potts said.

“On the day when we are shooting it won’t be our focus but we’ve shown in Turkey where we came fifth out of 50 or 60 teams that we have the potential to be right up there.”

If they are to achieve that goal then then team could be well on their way to a historic first Olympic team medal for Australia at Rio.

“I’m especially looking forward to the matches and getting out on that stage,” Potts continued.

“Every team at this competition is really good. We’ve had great days and so have some of the other teams.

“We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t have a chance so I will see what happens on the day.”

The ranking round kicks off on Friday August 5.