Amy Oliver is aiming to stay on target for Olympic success at the London Archery Classic.
Rotherham archer hoping to star at iconic London venue
Amy Oliver aims to stay on target for Olympics success in the London Archery Classic at Lord's.
The 23-year-old from Rotherham claimed bronze at the 2011 World Championships in Turin but knows she faces fierce competition in the recurve team with the likes of Naomi Folkard and Charlotte Burgess also vying to support experienced Olympic campaigner Alison Williamson, who claimed bronze at the 2004 Athens Games.
Oliver is determined to stay focused on the prize ahead.
"Archery is very competitive, but we have got plenty of up-and-coming athletes," she said.
"I am really happy to have been in the top two over this last year, being able to go to the World Championships and claim a bronze medal.
"I just want to carry on now to be in the top three for Olympic selection.
"If I shoot the way I have been doing, then hopefully qualification won't be a problem, but it is going to be tough because everyone is shooting really well at the minute."
Marker
Oliver hopes the London Archery Classic, which runs from October 3 to 9 at the Olympic venue, can act as a marker on the road to London.
"I am really looking forward to the test event, just to see where I lie in it all," she said.
"I have been at the gym nearly every day since the World Championships, just because I feel like I had a disadvantage because I was not shooting a strong enough poundage on the bow.
"I have done a lot of mental training, like imagery, and they are some of the key things I have been working on."
Oliver added: "Lord's is an iconic venue, where there has been a lot of history made and hopefully we will make some history as well next summer."
Despite Oliver having archery in her blood - with both parents and grandparents members of their local club in Dearne Valley - it was not a natural progression on what she hopes will now be a dream Olympic journey.
"I did not really like it, because archery was seen as more of a boy's sport and I was into my ballet, stuff like that," recalled Oliver, part of the British trio which won a Commonwealth Games silver medal in Delhi last year.
"Then when I was 16, I tried it again with my auntie and went from there, when I really got the bug."
Sacrificed
Whatever the outcome over the next 12 months, Oliver know she will have given it her all - at some personal cost.
"We have all sacrificed a lot already really, but you only get one chance. Everything is (geared) towards the Olympics," she said.
"I don't see my family or my boyfriend and don't really see any of my friends that much because I am always living out of a suitcase up and down the country, like at Lilleshall where the national governing body is based and Archery Team GB shoot.
"I have given up my job to train full-time, so it is a struggle, but everybody knows how important it is to me and are really supportive."
