Australian archer Alice Ingley has put in the fight of her fledgling career, coming back from a below-par ranking round, torrential rain and a 0-4 deficit in her elimination match to post an exhilarating 6-4 victory over Italian Gloria Filippi. 

Having started the day with 32 athletes, just 16 remain in both fields after half were sent for early showers following the elimination round.

Fellow Australian archer Ben Nott has also pushed through the rain to the next round after an epic-battle with his 24^th ranked-Danish rival Benjamin Hindborg Ipsen, winning 6-4 in a tie break.

Nott looked confident through the ranking process and finished in ninth place with a score of 634 – a fantastic effort considering the quality opponents he faced and the sheets of rain clouding his sight.

In elimination, Nott was pushed to the limit, with the talented Dane taking the lead 0-3 only for the second Australian comeback of the afternoon to assure a win.

While Nott was challenged late in the day, for Ingley the final victory was a massive relief after a tough day on the range.

The wet and blustery conditions were about as bad as it gets for an archer. The athletes were almost as wet as the family of ducks playing in the precarious spot next to the targets, with wind blowing water around in every direction.

Ingley found the conditions difficult from the outset, slipping to 24^th place by the end of the second set with a score of 560. The rain and wind had a damaging effect on her lighter arrows, spraying them in different directions.

As the rain and wind varied throughout the morning session, so too did Ingley’s shooting and the lack of consistency further dented the young archer’s chances of progressing.

“Alice is at the top of her game in Australia as far as junior’s go and she has the ability to deal with these conditions,” Feeney said.

“It’s just lack of experience – being able to adapt and change her style to suit what’s happening around her.

“The conditions are very tough and it’s not just the rain knocking her around but also the wind, her lighter arrows are very difficult to handle.

“If it clears up this afternoon and she can relax then she is a good chance of going through.”

When the rain did clear, Ingley found herself against ninth-placed Italian Gloria Fillipi, who shot to an early 0-4 lead leaving the Australian chasing from the start.

But as the match looked to be over, along with Ingley’s individual campaign, the Italian faltered, the Australian settled and the match took an incredible twist.

Her last-arrow win over Filippi clearly elated Ingley as she turned to Nott with the biggest smile of the day.

“I’m still shaking – I can’t believe how that went – it was nearly all over, I was nearly finished,” Ingley said.

“When I shot the nine she [Filippi] was taking so long to take her shot, I knew she was in trouble – I had shot two arrows and she was still standing there not even having taken her first shot.

“Then I shot a 10 and she needed a 10 to push it to a tie break but she missed and it was all over.”

Both Nott and Ingley will go into tomorrow’s competition full of confidence after today’s memorable performances.

“I was hoping for rain this morning, for some reason I always seem to shoot well in the wet,” Nott said.

“I’m not sure what it is about the rain but it seems to calm me – I was happy with how things went through rankings.”

Meanwhile elimination for mixed pairs also took place today, with Ingley moving through with her Japanese partner and Nott  with, his Slovenian partner - again getting through on the better end of a tie break finish.

 For the first time partners from different countries have been paired based on scores from the ranking stage of the individual event.

Mixed pair finals start tomorrow, with individual women’s on Friday and men’s on Saturday.

Elliot Woods

AOC