Huston aiming to give Team GB perfect start in Rio

Huston will compete in the men's archery ranking round on Friday morning before dashing back to the village for a quick change ahead of the opening ceremony. And the 20-year old, a former world junior champion, is not short on confidence, talking up his chances of success at the Sambadrome, better known as the iconic home of Rio's carnival. "I'm really proud to get the team going, it will be important to establish a really positive mood that hopefully everybody can feed off," he said. "A good performance in the ranking round means a better draw for the head to heads, basically you want to be avoiding the Koreans. "A top 20 will give me the chance I need if I want a shout of a medal but a few bad arrows and my Olympics could effectively be over before it's started. "The head to head contests are what I really love, they are dramatic and intense and they tend to bring out the best in me." Huston - who won silver and bronze at the recent European Championships in Nottingham - took up archery as an eight-year-old and soon focussed his sights on making an Olympic team. And his confidence is backed by up parents Adrian and Felicity and brother Alex, who had booked their tickets to Rio long before Huston had qualified his place. "I've kept so much memorabilia from my career so far and I just look at the scoresheets from old competitions if I need inspiration or reminding how far I've come," he adds. Meanwhile, team-mate Naomi Folkard will make her fourth Olympic Games appearance in the women's ranking round a few hours after Huston. Folkard made her debut in Athens, narrowly missed out on team bronze in Beijing and admits she will always regret her results at London 2012. "2012 was a disappointing experience and our results for two years after that probably reflected how much it hit us," she admits. "Since we've appointed a new coach, our positivity has improved. Technically nothing's changed but it's the mental attitude that has improved and that's so important in archery."

Sportsbeat 2016