WOKING archery ace Louisa Piper says juggling shooting precision with university revision can help her banish her Olympics heartbreak.

Louisa, 19, narrowly missed out on a place at the games in Tokyo last summer, after being deprived of her usual training regime by the COVID 19 pandemic.

She was forced to adjust to a different academic landscape, basing herself three hours from home at Archery GB’s national training centre in Shropshire so that she could train while taking part in virtual academic lessons.

Ultimately, her juggling act was not quite enough, as Louisa lost out on the reserve position in Great Britain’s archery squad for the Olympics. This left her time to secure a place at the University of Nottingham to study for a degree in aerospace engineering.

"Obviously getting so close to the Olympics, doing all that training for so many years, getting so close and seeing that goal moved is quite hard,” said Louisa, who recently finished her first year at the university.

Louisa, one of Woking Archery Club’s star members, added: "But I didn't get hung up on that and the only thing I could do was focus on my training and my goals and my education.

"It's hard to get that close. Watching other people do the things that you hoped you were going to be doing is hard but you have to look at the big picture.

"And the experiences I’ve had put me in a great position for the future, and I trust that long-term it is they will be the better right choice."

Louisa, the 2021 European under-21 field archery champion, had faith in her ability to progress to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, building on her successes as part of the GB Olympics squad since she was 14.

"The main thing for me is that you need to want it,” she said. "Also, you need to make sure you're on top of your academic work.

"Especially at university, trying to make the sessions as fun as possible is also important. With archery, quite a lot of the training is individual and it can be quite hard.”

Louisa uses preparation as a key and will be taking it into her future competitions after an impressive season so far, which has seen her rise to 85th in the world rankings.

She said: "We have the European Championships at the National Centre in two weeks which is a bit more of a peak competition.

"Overall, this has been a really good season and my first one at uni so I've been adjusting to that. It would be amazing to go to Paris and a really good experience and the closer you get, the more exciting it is."

Entain, the owner of Ladbrokes and Coral, is proud to be championing the next generation of British sporting heroes such as Louise Piper, by providing talented young athletes with financial support and personal development opportunities in partnership with SportsAid. Visit www.entaingroup.com to find out more.