TOKYO 2020: Australian women’s Rugby 7’s and men’s Archery teams have secured quota spots for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games after strong performances in Europe this weekend, marking the first quota spots secured by Australians this year.

The Rugby and Archery teams join Equestrian (Dressage team, Jumping team and Eventing team), Sailing (470 men, 49er FX women, Laser men and Nacra 17 mixed) and Shooting (Trap women and Trap men), who all secured quota spots in 2018 based on results at their respective World Championships, making a total of 9 secured quota places for 33 athlete spots.

All quota spots secured so far are attributed to the Australian Team, with individual athlete selections to happen at a later date.

Chef de Mission Ian Chesterman is pleased to see Australian athletes securing quota spots for Tokyo 2020 ahead of 24 July’s one year to go milestone.

“The journey to an Olympic Games starting line is years and years in the making - securing a quota spot for Australia is an integral milestone on that path” Chesterman said.

“It’s encouraging to see the team begin to take shape as quota spots are won and I congratulate the athletes on their hard work to achieve this result.

“With just over a year until Tokyo 2020 it’s great that Australian athletes are positioning themselves well to make the Games and performing at a world class level.”

The coming months offer more opportunities for Australian athletes to secure quota places for Australia at Tokyo 2020, including both men’s and women’s 3x3 Basketball teams at the World Cup 18-23 June in Amsterdam, Beach Volleyball at the World Championships in Hamburg from 28 June and Diving, Water Polo and Swimming relay spots at July’s FINA World Aquatic Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.

The women’s Rugby 7’s team secured the top 4 overall finish in the World Series needed for automatic Tokyo 2020 qualification, capped off with a fifth place in Biarritz on Monday morning (AEST).

In a mixed final day for the Aussie 7s, Australia fell to Spain in the quarter finals (14-15) but defeated Russia (31-21) and France (24-10) to finish fifth for the tournament, earning enough points to cement themselves in fourth place in the overall standings behind New Zealand, USA and Canada.

Australian Women’s Sevens Head Coach John Manenti said qualification was an important achievement.

Australian Women’s Sevens Head Coach John Manenti said qualification was an important achievement.

“It’s been a massive effort by the whole squad and staff across the Series to ensure our qualification for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and I really want to congratulate everyone on the role they played to get us here,” Manenti said.

“Every player and staff member is looking forward to adding to the next chapter in the history of the Aussie Women’s Sevens jersey.”

The men’s recurve archery team of Taylor Worth, Ryan Tyack and David Barnes finished fifth at the 2019 Archery World Championships in the Netherlands, securing their Tokyo 2020 quota spot by finishing in the top 8.

With Olympic quota spots on the line, the round of 16 playoffs were the tensest of the year. Rising to meet the challenge, the Australian team shot a perfect 30 to take down Turkey (30-25).

Despite going down to China in the quarter final, Australian Taylor Worth, who won bronze in the Archery teams event at Rio 2016, was ecstatic to lock in a quota spot for the country.

“Going to the Olympics is the pinnacle event for pretty much all sporting avenues,” he said.

“Securing spots this early… we can just get into big hard training blocks now and try and secure those spots for ourselves when the trials come.”

The archery quota spot secures a quota for the teams event as well as spots in the individual archery event for the three athletes selected.

olympics.com.au