Men’s Individual
As always, the ranking round was dominated by the South Koreans. Kim Woo-Jin (South Korea) led ahead of Kim Je-deok (South Korea). Lee Woo-seok (South Korea) scored the most X’s when qualifying fifth with Mete Gazoz (Turkey) scoring the next most but qualifying eighth. The top quarter largely went as expected, aside from Nicholas D’Amour (British Virgin Islands) being upset, to set up some brilliant third round contests. Erik Peters (Canada) would beat fourth seed Dhiraj Bommadevara (India). Tom Hall (Great Britain) would make the round of sixteen from seed 51. The standout round of sixteen game saw Gazoz overcome Thomas Chirault (France) in a shootout having been 5-3 down. Both Woo-seok and Woo-jin would win 6-4 to make the semi final. Florian Unruh (Germany) would beat Baptiste Addis (France) in a shootout by virtue of a closer ten. The most impressive performance came as Brady Ellison (United States) scored 87 points over three sets to beat Je-deok to nil. Woo-jin would beat compatriot Woo-seok in a shootout to make the final. It was another 87 from Ellison but Unruh was able to hold on, down 5-1. Ellison would lose the fourth set; but a fifth set 29 would take him to the gold medal matchup. Woo-seok would beat Unruh 6-0 to confirm bronze. In the final, all but one of the first four sets were won with a score of 29 to leave the game 4-4. In the potential decider both would score 30, sending them to a shootout. It was a 10 from Woo-Jim to seal the gold.
🥇Kim Woo-Jin 🇰🇷
🥈Brady Ellison 🇺🇸
🥉Lee Woo-seok 🇰🇷 Prediction analysis; 1 Medalist correct
As will often prove to be the case here, I underestimated the Korean dominance. They have never really dominated the Olympics to this extent and although I saw Woo-jin being on the podium, I didn't expect him to win as impressively as he did or his teammates to do as well. D'Almeida run into Woo-jin and maybe if he managed to avoid him, he could have medalled as he was putting up big points in the elimination rounds.
Men’s Team
It was South Korea who were top after the ranking stage. France were second and the only other team with over 100 10’s. India were third and joined those two in scoring over 2000 total points. There was no surprise in the preliminary round but Turkey would beat India 6-2 to make the semi finals. They would then take France to a shootout after a 4-4 tie. In that shootout, France took the early 10-8 lead. Turkey would score 19 to put the pressure on and France would equal it, winning the tie due to the closest arrow. China were beaten 5-1 by the Korean team. In the gold medal match, France were able to split the first set but Korea would score an impressive 59 to win the second set and followed up by repeating to take the gold medal.
🥇South Korea 🇰🇷
🥈France 🇫🇷
🥉Turkey 🇹🇷
I fancied the Koreans to get gold here and they duly delivered. I did mention both France and Turkey as dangers but went against them due to pedigree in this competition.
Women’s Individual
Lim Si-hyeon (South Korean) impressed with a world record in the ranking round, despite slowing down in the second half. Behind her was compatriot Nam Su-hyeon (South Korea). Alejandra Valencia (Mexico) only trailed Si-hyeon when hitting 17 X’s. Mobina Fallah (Iran) hit fifteen but only qualified in 28th. Megan Havers (Great Britain) caused two upsets to make the round of sixteen whilst Casey Kaufhold (United States) was beaten by Lei Chien-ying (Taiwan). Number three seed Yang Xiaolei (China) went out to Lisa Barbelin (France). From that point South Korea would dominate, sending their three archers to the semi final. Barbelin would continue to outperform her seed and made the semi finals. Su-hyeon would end the Barbelin run in the semi final whilst Si-hyeon beat Jeon Hun-young (South Korea) in the other. In the bronze medal matchup, Barbelin went 4-2 up. Pegged back to 4-4, she would have a shot at a ten to win bronze. She nailed it to take bronze in front of her home crowd. Si-hyeon won the final with set scores of 30, 29, 29, 29 and 28.
🥇Lim Si-hyeon 🇰🇷
🥈Nam Su-hyeon 🇰🇷
🥉Lisa Barbelin 🇫🇷 Prediction analysis; 1 Medalist correct
Again, I underestimated the Korean dominance. I did think Si-hyeon was the biggest threat of the Koreans and so it proved. Bauer was nowhere near whereas Valencia again put together strong performances in the elimination rounds but not enoguh to topple Si-hyeon. I mentioned Barbelin as a threat,
Women’s Team
South Korea set an Olympic record and were 50 ahead of their nearest competitor, China. Netherlands were able to cause two big shocks beating France and India 6-0 on their way to the semi finals whilst South Korea could only beat Taiwan 6-2. The other semi final would see Mexico come up against China. Netherlands would take a 4-2 lead against South Korea but the Koreans would fight their way back in with a 59 score round before scoring 26 in the shootout to make the final. In the other semi China would take a 5-3 victory. Mexico would take bronze with a 6-2 win over Netherlands. In the final, Korea would go 4-0 up only for China to pull it back to 4-4. Under immense pressure, two Korean archers would score 10s by hitting the line and taking a 29-27 victory.
🥇South Korea 🇰🇷
🥈China 🇨🇳
Again, Korea were the deserved favourite. I mention Mexico as serious medal contenders, whilst China were also mentioned for their depth. Great Britain and France both really disappointed.
Mixed Team
An Olympic record was broken by Woo-jin/Si-hyeon (South Korea) in the ranking round. Unruh/Kroppen (Germany) were second ahead of Ellison/Kaufhold (United States). Acha/Canales (Spain) hit more X’s than everyone but the top two, however could only qualify in thirteenth. In the first round the South Korean pair struggled against, Yu-hsuan/Chien-ying (Taiwan) only going through in a shootout. Nakanishi/Noda (Japan) also beat Gazoz/Gakkir (Turkey) in a shootout. The top three seeds would all go through to semi final with fifth seed Bommadevara/Bhakat (India) joining them. They would lose to South Korea in the first semi final despite taking the opening set. Germany would beat the United States in the other semi a tight with a final set score of 38. United States would win the bronze medal matchup comfortably 6-2 over India. The final was anti-climatic as South Korea beat Germany 6-0 despite two sets where they only scored 35.
🥇Kim Woo-jin/Lim Si-hyeon 🇰🇷
🥈Florian Unruh/Michelle Kroppen 🇩🇪
🥉Brady Ellison/Casey Kaufhold 🇺🇸 Prediction analysis;2 Medalists correct, 2 perfect prediction
Korea dominated this as they did the rest of the tournament. I also expected Germany to do well. I pointed out the United States as a possible team who could contend
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