ARCHERY: The Australian men’s archery team has made history already in Rio breaking the Australian Olympic ranking round individual and team records at the famous Sambodromo.
Kicking off the archery competition to determine team and individual seedings, Taylor Worth shot a total of 674 to finish 14th and set a new individual mark, Potts shot 666 (20th) and Tyack scored 665 (23rd) to combine for a total of 2005.
The result sees the Australian team progress directly to the quarter-finals where they will face either France or Malaysia as they go in search of the nation’s first team medal in Olympic competition.
“Fourth is awesome,” Potts said.
“As far as we can tell unofficially that is the highest Olympic or World Cup score an Australian team has had.
“We’ve been focusing on getting into that top four so to come out and believe that on the day is amazing and shows how well we’ve been shooting.”
Korea topped the men’s rankings off the back of Kim Woojin shooting a world record score of 700. USA and Italy were second and third respectively.
The result means the team bypasses the 1/8 finals and skip tomorrow’s morning session.
“Importantly the result cuts tomorrow down,” Tyack said.
“Instead of being out here on the 5am bus we get to come out at 11am and just start in the second round and you can save your energy and really prepare well for the quarters.”
London 2012 Olympian Worth led the way for the Aussies and was hovering around the top five for the majority of the event before just slipping outside the top ten.
“The shots felt good today and it all came together on the one day,” Worth said.
“Sometimes I got an end of all gold but only shot nines (out of ten) and then shot well the next end.
“It was just about bouncing back from each end and keeping true to each shot.”
Potts, who currently holds the Australian record at 685, warmed up as the 72-arrow event continued.
“I was super nervous to start with and running pretty close to the clock early on,” Potts said.
“As was the case with the other boys I got better as we went on. It was great to take a quick look at Ryan and Taylor and see that they were drilling it and that would really pick me up.
“As a team we held it together really well.”
It was a similar case for Tyack who after settling in began to put up some good ends.
“I started off a bit slow but that happens at some events,” Tyack said.
“I came together really well in the second half so I wasn’t disappointed with the overall result.
“At this stage everyone is in with an equal chance. The ranking round is done now but that has nothing with what is to come in the next few days.”
Worth will face Ahmed El-Nemir of Egypt, Potts Bernardo Oliveira of Brazil and Robin Ramaekers of Belgium in the opening round of the individual competition that begins on Monday August 8.
The men’s team event is contested on Saturday August 6.
Matt Bartolo
olympics.com.au
