Archers Camerin Pickering and Jaydon Roberts have successfully negotiated the first hurdle in the final Olympic Games qualifier in Antalya, Turkey.

The Bermudian pair both advanced from the opening qualifying round in the men’s recurve competing at the Antalya Sports Centre on Saturday.

Pickering secured his spot in Monday’s elimination round with a score of 618 and Roberts shot 608 from a distance of 70 metres at a 122 centimetres target against some of the world’s elite in hot and windy conditions.

Bernard Wade III, the third member of the local contingent, was eliminated after a score of 557 left him short of the cut.

“All archers found it difficult to stay on target in temperatures reaching 100F and wind gusts up to 18 miles per hour,” assistant Bermuda coach Trina Roberts told The Royal Gazette.

“Team Bermuda fought hard in these conditions. Finishing up from the qualification rounds, Bermuda has two archers that will advance to eliminations on Monday. Camerin and Jaydon will compete, however Bernard did not make the cut for eliminations.”

Pickering, who is already eligible for a universality spot for small nations having achieved the qualification score of 640 on two occasions, will face Vietnam’s Duc Nguyen Minh while Roberts is up against Thailand’s Tanapat Pathairat in the elimination round.

“The archers are feeling good going into the eliminations,” coach Roberts added. “We want them as relaxed as possible, no pressure. Just want them to take one arrow at a time and enjoy this moment.

“This is a huge milestone for Bermuda and for these archers to be able to reach a standard to compete in an Olympic Qualifier and now to have made it to an actual eliminations to increase their chance to compete at the Olympics.

“As you can believe every country is hungry for a spot, and tomorrow will decide which countries will obtain the final quota spot for the Olympics.”