Patrick Huston

Patrick Huston (born 5 January 1996) is a British two-time Olympian archer from Belfast, Northern Ireland.[1] He captured three world championship titles under the youth level, and eventually competed as a member of the two person archery squad of Team GB at the 2016 Summer Olympics, in Rio, losing the first round match to the eventual champion Ku Bon-chan of South Korea.[2] In the Tokyo 2020 Olympics his best result was a men's team 5th. Huston currently lives near Lilleshall National Sporting Centre and trained full-time under senior national coach Richard Priestman[3] for Archery UK, while remaining a loyal founding member[4] of East Belfast Archery Club.[5] World ranking 14 at 16 January 2023

Patrick Huston
Personal information
Full namePatrick Huston
Born (1996-01-05) 5 January 1996
Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Height1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight88 kg (194 lb)
Sport
Country United Kingdom
SportArchery
Event(s)Recurve
ClubEast Belfast Archery Club
Coached byRichard Priestman
Medal record
Men's archery
Men's archery
Representing  Great Britain
World Championships
Bronze medal – third place2017 Mexico CityMixed team recurve
World Field Championships
Gold medal – first place 2014 ZagrebJunior Men’s Team
Bronze medal – third place 2014 ZagrebJunior Men
World Youth Championships
Gold medal – first place2013 Wuxi Cadet Individual
Gold medal – first place2013 Wuxi Cadet Mixed Team
European Games
Silver medal – second place2019 MinskMixed team recurve
European Championships
Silver medal – second place2016 NottinghamTeam
Bronze medal – third place2016 NottinghamIndividual
European Field Championships
Gold medal – first place2013 Terni Junior Men
Bronze medal – third place2013 Terni Junior Men’s Team
Silver medal – second place2015 RzeszowJunior Men
Silver medal – second place2017 Mokrice Individual
Bronze medal – third place2017 Mokrice Men’s Team
Indoor World Cup
Gold medal – first place2015 MarrakechMen’s Individual
Silver medal – second place2017 MarrakechIndividual
Silver medal – second place2017 GT OpenIndividual
World Cup
Gold medal – first place2018 AntalyaMen’s Team
World Ranking Event
Gold medal – first place2017 Veronica's Cup Individual
Gold medal – first place2017 Veronica's Cup Mixed Team

Early life

Born and raised in Belfast to parents Adrian and Felicity Huston, both of whom previously worked as tax inspectors, Huston became involved in archery as an eight-year-old pupil at Cabin Hill Primary School. Under the tutelage of British longbow champion and his teacher Audrey Needham, Huston began to show his potential to the sport by joining and serving as a mainstay of Campbell College's archery club.[6][7][8]

Upon his entry to the Northern Ireland Elite Squad as a fourteen-year-old, Huston trained part-time as an archer, and eventually started competing in both local and regional tournaments regularly. In September 2011, Huston founded his very own East Belfast Archery Club across the Tullycarnet Community Centre.[9] In 2014 he left Campbell College to train full-time at Lillleshall National Sporting Centre.[10]

Career

The 2013 season saw him rising to the prominence on the international archery scene, collecting a set of two Gold medals each in the individual and team recurve respectively at the World Youth Championships in Wuxi, China.[9][11] At the European Field Archery Championships in Terni, Italy, he won the Gold individuals Junior Men's Recurve, and also Bronze in the Recurve Junior Men's Team.[12] With his early success in archery, Huston was named by the British Olympic Committee (BOA) as one of the country's prospective sportspeople nominated for the 2013 Olympic Athlete of the Year award.[13]

2014 and Huston continued to extend his career with a team Gold (Junior Men's Team) in Zagreb, Croatia at the World Archery Field Championship.[14]

2015 season saw him eclipse the world 70-metre record (348 out of 360) at the Archery GB National Series in Exmouth, and by capturing his first individual gold medal under the senior division at the opening stage of the World Archery Cup series in Marrakech, Morocco.[15][16] Leading up to his Olympic debut in Rio de Janeiro, Huston won a bronze medal in the men's individual recurve at the 2016 European Championships in Nottingham to secure a quota place on Team GB's Olympic archery squad.[17]

2016 and at the Summer Olympics, Huston was selected to compete as a lone male archer for the British squad, shooting only in the individual recurve tournament.[2][18] First, he recorded a total score of 656 points, including 22 targets of a perfect ten, to obtain the thirty-eighth seed from a field of 64 archers in the classification round.[19][20] Heading to the knockout stage on the third day of the Games, Huston confidently overcame the Dutchman and London 2012 fourth-place finalist Rick van der Ven with a two-set advantage at 6–4 in the opening round, before he lost his subsequent match on three straight sets to the eventual champion Ku Bon-chan of South Korea.[21][22] He ended the year with an individual bronze Junior Men's Recurve medal at the Dublin World field championships.[23]

2017 - September saw him make history by becoming the first archer to win the Great Britain National Series Recurve title three times in a row.[24][25] He also secured in Slovenia (World Ranking Event) - Gold Men's Recurve & Gold Recurve Mixed Team in Target discipline. In the European Field championships (also Slovenia) - Silver Men's Recurve & Bronze Men's Recurve Team.[26] In Target at the World Championships in Mexico City he secured Bronze in the Recurve Mixed Team with team-mate Naomi Folkard.[27] Indoor World Cup in Marrakech he won Silver in Men's Recurve.[28] Silver Men's Recurve at the World Cup stage in Luxembourg.

2018 saw a Bronze Men's Team at the World Cup in Antalya.[29]

2019 - May - Huston was selected to compete in the 2019 European Games in Minsk, Belarus joining over 100 other athletes in 10 different sports, coming home with Silver in Mixed Team Recurve.[30][31] In June he and 5 Archery GB colleagues secured the maximum 6 places at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics - a 3-woman team and a 3-man team.[32][33] At the Aphrodite Cup in Cyprus he won Gold in the Mixed Team and Silver in the Men's Recurve individual.

2020 was a year of virtually no International competitions due to Covid. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics were deferred for one year.

2021 saw him reach the final four in the Men's Recurve Individual competition at the Paris Archery World Cup Stage 3.[34] July will see him compete in his second Olympics (the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games).[35]

As of June 2021 he is ranked 106th in the World.[36]

2021 July saw the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Huston finished with a 5th in the Recurve Men's Team, 8th in the Mixed Team with Sarah Bettles, and 33rd Individual.

2022 brought success in the UK winning the National Series for a record 5th time. He won a bronze medal at the World Field Archery Championships in Birmingham, Alabama.

2023 and by 16 January had a career-best World ranking of 14th.

References
  1. "Patrick Huston". Rio 2016. Archived from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  2. "Post-mortems begin as NI miss out on Rio medals". BBC Sport.
  3. "Huston and Folkard to lead Archery GB in Shanghai". Eurosport. 15 May 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  4. "Archer Patrick has Olympics in his sights". BBC News. 23 October 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  5. "Northern Ireland archer's note to self... in my mind I'm already the champion". Belfast Telegraph. 6 August 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  6. Beacom, Steven (6 August 2016). "Confident teenager Patrick has sights fixed on Olympics and World glory". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  7. Churchill, David (4 August 2016). "Olympic archer Patrick Huston: School bullies called me Robin Hood … where are they now?". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  8. "Olympic star Huston's 2020 vision has Tokyo firmly in his sights". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  9. Williams, Ollie (15 May 2014). "Patrick Huston's manifesto: no rules, get rich, win the Olympics. Twice". Frontier Sports. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  10. "Lilleshall National Sports & Conferencing Centre welcomes home Olympic and Paralympic stars". serco.com. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  11. "Huston targets Rio Games after China success". BBC Sport. 23 October 2013. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  12. "Archery - INTERVIEW: PATRICK HUSTON". The Infinite Curve. 1 February 2014. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  13. "BOA Announce Olympic Athletes of the Year 2013". Team GB. 23 December 2013. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  14. Team Finals LIVE: Zagreb 2014 – World Archery Field Championships, retrieved 26 June 2021
  15. "Archery: Patrick Huston off to World Cup". The News Letter. 13 June 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  16. "Hansen, Huston win Marrakesh men's titles with impressive finishes". World Archery. 22 November 2015. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  17. "Rio 2016: NI's Huston qualifies for Olympic Games". BBC Sport. 27 May 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  18. "Archers Folkard and Huston book their Olympic spots". Team GB. 29 June 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  19. "Naomi and Patrick on hunt for glory". Archery UK. 5 August 2016. Archived from the original on 24 February 2017. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  20. "Rio 2016: Patrick Huston is first Briton in action as he is 38th in archery qualifier". BBC Sport. 5 August 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  21. "Archery: Men's Individual Round of 32". Rio 2016. Archived from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  22. "Rio 2016: Patrick Huston Huston defeated in last 32". BBC Sport. 10 August 2016. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  23. #FanStream: Patrick Huston v Valentin Ripaux – Recurve Junior Men's Bronze Final | Dublin 2016, retrieved 26 June 2021
  24. "Belfast archer hits the target of record GB hat-trick". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  25. hustontv (10 October 2017), Patrick Huston v Alex Wise Archery GB National Series final 24 September 2017 Birmingham, retrieved 11 October 2017
  26. "European Field Championships". World Archery. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  27. "Belfast man Huston climbs new heights with Mexico bronze". belfasttelegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  28. Matteo Fissore v Patrick Huston [no sound] – recurve men's gold final | Marrakesh 2017, retrieved 26 June 2021
  29. Match Replay - Antalya 2018 World Cup, retrieved 26 June 2021
  30. "Archers join Team GB for Minsk 2019 European Games". Team GB. 24 May 2019. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  31. "Team GB squad announcement for the European Games". Team GB. 21 May 2019. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  32. "GBR wins six spots for Tokyo 2020". Bow International. 25 June 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  33. "GB archery teams qualify for Tokyo 2020". BBC Sport. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  34. "USA puts three recurve archers into Paris final fours". World Archery. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  35. "Tokyo 2020: Patrick Huston hellbent on propelling archery's popularity to new heights at the Olympic Games". Eurosport UK. 20 May 2021. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  36. "Patrick Huston". World Archery. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
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