Laurence Paul Godfrey (born 9 June 1976, in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

) is a British archer. He studied for an HND in Mechanical Manufacturing at the

University of the West of England The University of the West of England (also known as UWE Bristol) is a public research university, located in and around Bristol, England. The institution was know as the Bristol Polytechnic in 1970; it received university status in 1992 and ...

from 1997 to 2000.

2004 Summer Olympics

Godfrey was the only British male to qualify for the men's tournament at Athens 2004. He competed for the United Kingdom (as

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

) at the 2004 Summer Olympics in men's individual archery. He won his first three elimination matches, advancing to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals, Godfrey faced

Chen Szu-yuan Chen Szu-yuan (; born 7 February 1981) is an athlete from the Republic of China. He competes in archery. 2004 Summer Olympics Chen competed for the Republic of China (as Chinese Taipei) at the 2004 Summer Olympics in men's individua ...

of Chinese Taipei, defeating Chen 110–108 in the 12-arrow match and advancing to the semifinals. There, he faced

Marco Galiazzo Marco Galiazzo (born 7 May 1983, in Padova) is an athlete from Italy. He competes in archery for C.S. Aeronautica Militare, and is a former world number one. He was the first Olympic champion in the Italian archery history, w ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, losing to the eventual gold medalist 110–108. Godfrey then competed against

Tim Cuddihy Timothy John Cuddihy (born 21 May 1987) is an archer from Toowoomba, Australia, who competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in men's individual matchplay archery. He won his first three elimination matches, advancing to the quarterfinals. In the ...

of Australia in the bronze medal match, losing 113–112 to take 4th place overall.

2008 Summer Olympics

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

Godfrey finished his ranking round with a total of 657 points. This gave him the 34th seed for the final competition bracket in which he faced

Bair Badënov Bair Badënov (russian: Баи́р Доржи́евич Бадёнов, ''Baír Dorzhíyevich Badyónov'', ; born June 28, 1976, in Zugalay, now Zabaykalsky Krai) is a Russian archer. Badënov was a World Champion among Youth in 1993, a Europe ...

in the first round. Badënov won the match with 114–109 and went on to win the bronze medal. Together with

Simon Terry Simon Duncan Terry (27 March 1974 – July 2021) was a British archer from Grantham in Lincolnshire, England. Early life Terry was born on 27 March 1974 in Stirling, the son of Mike and Janice Terry. With the help of his father, Te ...

and Alan Wills he also took part in the team event. With his 657 score from the ranking round combined with the 670 of Terry and the 661 of Wills the British were in fifth position after the ranking round. In the first elimination round they faced the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

team and got eliminated with 214–210. The Chinese went on to win the bronze medal.

2012 Summer Olympics

At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Godfrey finished 4th in the ranking round with a total of 680 points. He defeated Emdadul Haque Milon from Bangladesh in the 1/32 elimination round, winning 6-0 (scoring 84 out of a possible 90 points). He then went on to defeat Mexico's Juan Serrano, winning the first set, tying the second set, and then winning the final 2 sets, giving him a victory of 7–1. The 1/8 elimination round against Malaysian Khairul Anuar Mohamad was tied at 5–5 at the end of the 5th and final set. Mohamad won the one arrow shoot off and progressed to the quarterfinals, only to be defeated by Takaharu Furukawa from Japan who went on to win the silver medal.

Individual performance timeline

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Godfrey, Larry 1976 births Alumni of the University of the West of England, Bristol Archers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Archers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Archers at the 2012 Summer Olympics British male archers Living people Olympic archers of Great Britain Sportspeople from Bristol World Archery Championships medalists