CIRENCESTER archery star and compound world number one Ella Gibson won the silver medal at the European Archery Games in Poland last week.

Gibson, 23, broke the world record for points amassed in the qualifying stages with 715, which put her straight through to the quarter-finals. 

The Brit faced Dutch archer Sanne de Laat in the last-eight contest and after a neck and neck between the two, Gibson eventually secured a one-point lead to win 143-142. 

A semi-final win over Turkey's Hazal Burun in the semi-finals put Gibson into the final against Eliza Roner from Italy in the gold medal match.

The pair battled against tricky wind conditions in the final, but Gibson was eventually beaten by the Italian athlete and had to settle for the silver medal. 

"I mean coming out and winning a medal is always what you want and it’s great to be able to come to my first European Games and do that," she said afterward.

"Obviously, I’m a little bit frustrated with how the final went and of course not winning gold, but there will be many more opportunities and I know I’ll be on the finals field again."

Gibson was not the only Brit in action in Krakow, as 18-year-old Penny Healey returned home with two gold medals. 

Healey won the individual women's recurve and the team recurve women's competition alongside Bryony Pitman and Jaspreet Sagoo to earn herself a Team GB individual recurve women’s quota spot for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The world number two archer shot some astounding matches on her route through to the finals in Krakow, Poland. Her form did not falter in the gold final against Spain's Elia Canales, eventually winning the match 6-2 and being crowned the European Games champion for 2023.

After her win, Healey shared her feelings on the week's competition, saying: "It was not easy – I think there was a lot of nerves there and also it’s never easy to play up against an awesome opponent and a friend as well. This week I think everyone’s done really well and we’ve all shot to the best that we could."