Archers from 25 countries are battling arrived in the Black Sea city of Samsun for the European Indoors Archery Championships that opened Tuesday.

The event opened with the qualifying rounds, with individual and team elimination matches scheduled today. The championship will end on March 2 with the individual medal matches, a day after the team finals.

This first major tournament of the European archery season is an opportunity for Turkey to showcase its capacity to host international events as well as a leading force in world archery. Twenty-four Turkish archers, including world No. 5 Mete Gazoz are competing in the tournament.

Göktuğ Ergin, the Turkish national team coach, says they are looking to win as many medals as they can in the competition, where 184 archers from around the world would vie for the top titles.

"This is the first international archery contest in Samsun, so, it is important for Turkey and for the Archery Federation. We want to showcase how much qualified Turkey is to host such tournaments," said Ergin.

Even though the tournament does not award world or Olympics ranking points, Turkey will still compete with a full-strength national team, with three archers each in eight categories, from recurve to compound men's and women's events.