SA archer Wian Roux will have his work cut out in the next round after battling in his Paris Olympics opener yesterday. Photo: REG CALDECOTT
OBAKENG MELETSE
Wian Roux finished 63rd in the men’s individual archery event at the Paris Olympics yesterday.
Roux, in his first senior Olympics, could only manage a score of 601 – avoiding last place by one point.
The former youth Olympian took part in a ranking round, where 64 archers had two halves where they had to shoot 72 arrows to determine their rankings for the single elimination bracket.
The result means that Roux will be up against it as he will next face second-placed Kim Je-deok on July 31 in the elimination round as the race for the final kicks off.
A first half, first-round score of 48, including 2x10, kick-started the 21-year-old’s Olympic run, and saw off early jitters as all archers shot their best shot with only one target to aim for.
The United States’ Ellison Brady holds the world record at 702 out of 720 in the Men’s Individual Rankings.
Roux, with a personal best score of 651 out of 720, has said he has his sights on breaking his own record, and midway through the first half of the contest, he was 28 points off the lead after a total of 18 arrows shot.
The 26-year-old Korean Lee Wooseok took the early initiative and occupied the lead for large parts of the first half, and his pinpoint accuracy saw him collect 270 in perfect scores on his way to a score of 344 to close off the first half.
But a narrow one-point difference saw gold medallist with the Korean mixed team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Kim Je-deok, swooping in to claim the half at a score of 345, with 310 coming in scores of 10.
Roux’s fourth attempt in the first half gave him his best score of 53 in the half, and needing a lot of catching up to do to avoid playing against the top seeds, he closed the first half of the match at 296, with 12 arrows landing perfectly to hand him a clean 120 points – but he trailed Je-deok by 49 points.
Olympic record holder at 700 points out of a possible 720 and winner of the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Games, Kim Woojin, seized control of the second half and showed his class, and it was enough to finish ahead of Je-deok in first position with a score of 686.
Related Topics: