By Helen Thompson

Last updated 13:03, Thursday, 07 August 2008

Cumbria will be targeting Olympic glory when archer Alan Wills fires his first arrow on Saturday.

Alan Wills

The 27-year-old joiner from Arlecdon in west Cumbria is in action on the first day of the Olympics and headed to Beijing this week to complete his preparations.

Alan is part of the six-strong Great Britain archery team and hopes are high that he can return with a medal.

His former Sellafield Archery Club coach, Alf Davies, is following his former protege’s form with avid interest.

He said: “I think he could do very well indeed but, as with any sporting event, anything can happen but I know he will give his best.

“He has been shooting well and in an email he sent to me he says training is going okay and he really wants to do well.”

Alan will feature in both the men’s team event and the individual event, with the qualifying rounds beginning on Saturday, and is the county’s only representative in the Games.

On Monday there are the men’s team heats and quarter-finals, followed by the semis and medals, before the men’s individual eliminators get under way on Wednesday.

Finally, on Friday, Alan will hopefully be involved in the men’s individual last 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.

Alan and his team-mates have been in Macau for 10 days of acclimatisation and last-minute training before moving on to Beijing.

UK Sport funding has enabled him to focus full-time on archery, and he has nothing but praise for his employers, Frizington-based C & E Builders.

Before Alan left he said: “We have as good a chance as anyone to win medals.

“We aren’t really going out with expectations of finishing in a certain place – just to shoot at the best level we can and take it from there.”

In the region of 30 countries will be competing against Great Britain, including world number ones Korea and a strong Indian side.

Last year Alan was ranked third in the world.

He said: “I never expected to do as well as I did last year. It gave me the confidence. After all of the hard work I have been doing, I deserve to go to Beijing.

“I feel like a footballer because I am getting paid a lot of money to do something I love.”