About Patrick
Patrick Huston is a British Olympic Archer, born and raised in Northern Ireland and living in Telford. He has won 3 World Championship titles, holds a World Record and many other National and International accolades. Patrick still regularly competes internationally as part of the GB as recently qualified for the TOKYO OLYMPICS with the GB team and won a SILVER MEDAL in the mixed team event at the European Games in Belarus.
Patrick’s company has been set up to facilitate his dream of growing the sport and getting more people to enjoy archery, and to show people how fun archery really is!
Patrick started archery in 2008 at his primary school of Cabin Hill (now Campbell College Junior School). He carried on in school recreationally until he was 12 when he joined a club in his hometown of Belfast. After a couple of local tournaments Patrick was invited to join the Northern Ireland Elite Junior Squad where he began approaching archery as training for an elite sport. In 2011 during his first venture to Great Britain, Patrick (15) took home 2 individual medals from the British Junior Outdoor Championships, returning in December to claim the U16 and U18 indoor titles. In 2012 Patrick was first selected to represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the World Field Archery Championships in Val D’isere.
In 2013 Patrick had his break-out year internationally, winning 2 World Championship titles in the Cadet (U18) Division in Wuxi; Individual and Mixed Team. This performance came close on the heels of taking home individual gold and team bronze as a junior from the European Field Championships. 2014 saw Patrick join the GB Olympic programme, win another World Championship Gold (junior men’s team at the World Field Championships), finish secondary school and go full time as an archer.
Becoming a professional athlete pushed Patrick forward very quickly, moving to the top of the British senior ranks within a month. The 2015 season saw Patrick travel the world for the World Archery World Cup season, as well as the junior and senior World Championships and Olympic test event. In August 2015 Patrick set a Junior World Record of 348/360 at 70m. This record still stands, along with being a current Senior and Junior European and British Record. Patrick rounded off 2015 with wins at the British National Series Final and the first leg of the Indoor World Cup circuit in Marrakesh.
2016 had the focus really directed towards the Rio 2016 Olympic games for Patrick, with the team having failed to qualify at the 2016 Copenhagen World Champs. Patrick shone brightly at the selection shoots, took team fourth at the World Cup in Shanghai and then steamrolled into the European Championships in Nottingham. The week saw Patrick take team silver, individual bronze in the Europeans and individual bronze in the Olympic Quota tournament. Patrick got to achieve this on home soil and with a large amount of his family watching alongside him. Patrick was joined in Rio by four-time Olympian Naomi Folkard who qualified at the ‘last-chance’ event in Antalya (TUR). In Rio Patrick was knocked out of the head to head tournament by Ku Bon Chan (KOR) who went on to become the Olympic champion in individual and team competition. At the World Field Champs in Dublin Patrick won Individual bronze in the junior division.
2017 saw Patrick’s World Ranking rise to number 16 with consistent 9th and 17th place results across the World Cup circuit. The season started with individual and team gold at the Veronicas Cup World Ranking event. Patrick took individual silver and team bronze at the European Field Championships, his first major field tournament as a senior. The major achievement of 2017 came at the Mexico City World Championships when Patrick won Mixed Team Bronze vs Japan with teammate Naomi Folkard. On return from Mexico Patrick embarked on a major technical change recommended by his coach, 3 x Olympian and 2 X Olympic Bronze Medallist Richard Priestman. Straight away Patrick set a stack of personal bests and many podium results.
During 2018 Patrick struggled technically at times with this new form development, including a serious injury in his fingers. However he still had multiple highlights including setting a British record of 687 for the Olympic 70m round, a score only ten people have ever bested. Along with team mates Alex Wise and Tom Hall, Patrick took Bronze at the Antalya World Cup. And pleasingly, despite no practice since the Europeans the year beforehand, Patrick took the number 3 qualifying position at the World Field Archery Championships in Cortina.
2019 was the year of the Qualifying event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics at the World Championships in the Netherlands. Patrick set an international personal best at this tournament helping the GB men's team to rank 8th and secure a bye in the first round. In a tremendously intense match versus Japan the trio of Tom Hall, Alex Wise and Patrick bested the 2020 home nation and qualified their spots for Tokyo! though i stress these spots are for the country and selection will happen in 2020 for the team members.
Travelling directly from the World Championships to the European Games was a tiring experience but this did not stop Patrick from ranking top of the GB men and qualifiy for the mixed team. In this Patrick shot with long-time team mate Naomi Folkard and they came away with a Silver Medal, losing to Italy in the Gold medal match.