Wataru upsets Defending Champion, makes semis

Japanese man Wataru Oonuki defeated reigning World Games Champion JC Valladont, 91-86, to make his first ever individual final four at the 2017 World Games in Wroclaw, Poland. Croatia’s Matija Mihalic joined him in the other remaining place.

“Valladont is Rio 2016 silver medallist and I have no international medal at all, beating him does mean something to me,” said Oonuki. “I was shooting strong and consistently today, but I was also lucky.”

Seeded fourth in Wroclaw, with 356 points on the qualification course, Oonuki met Valladont in the last match of the day, which decided the fourth and final World Games semifinalist in the recurve men’s competition.

Valladont had already fought up from his ninth seeding in Wroclaw by defeating Polish archer Adam Scibski by one point, Swede Jonathan Andersson and the USA’s Vic Wunderle.

Tied after the first target, at 14 points apiece, Oonuki slowly started to build a lead over the Olympic silver medallist. He was one point up after two, then two up after the fourth target and then, by three, 76-73, after the fifth target.

On the sixth and last target, JC shot 4, 4 and a 5; Wataru: 5, 6 and a 4.

Wataru, who’s only into his second international archery season and has never medalled, won the match by five, 91-86.

“I can’t believe it! I’m so happy because I want to win my first medal here in Wroclaw but, to do it, I first need to beat Brady, which will be hard but not impossible,” he said. “For me, field and target are related and I like both the same.”

Valladont said he was satisfied with his three match wins but disappointed to miss the semis, where he would have faced Ellison.

Matija Mihalic, who made it into the top eight at his first senior World Archery Field Championships in Dublin in 2016, beat Great Britain’s Mark Nesbitt for a place into the semis. Mark had a chance to win it with his last arrow, but threw it high, leaving the door open for Mihalic.

“The match against Mark was pretty tough. The whole time I was up by only two points and then we were tied. If it wasn’t for that one arrow he shot in the last target, a two, it could have been really tricky,” said Matija. “I finished with a six, though; pretty happy about that.”

The Croatian archer faces Italy’s Amedeo Tonelli in the semis.

The recurve men’s field semifinals are scheduled for Tuesday, 25 July at 14:30 local time.

The recurve field archery competition at the Wroclaw 2017 World Games starts on 23 July in Szczytnicki Park.