India, Brazil win first Olympic archery medals; Korea’s LEE Nanjing Champion

At the end of the Nanjing 2014 boys’ archery competition quarterfinals, three of the four remaining competitors were from nations that had never won an Olympic archery medal: Brazil, India and Turkey.

Korea has something of a habit of collecting them. But the first ever recurve men’s gold medal came at London 2012 courtesy of OH Jin Hyek.

In China, Brazil and India had their first podiums – courtesy of Youth Olympians Marcus DALMEIDA and Verma ATUL.

Nanjing 2014 21-26 August
Youth Olympic Games

NEWS | RESULTS 
SCOREBOARD | PHOTOS
Fri 22 Aug Ranking round
Sat 23 Aug Eliminations
Sun 24 Aug Mixed team finals

Mon 25 Aug Girls finals
Tues 26 Aug Boys finals

See full schedule

The pair shot against each other in the semifinals and ATUL led most of the way – but Marcus, who seems to improve during matches, won the last two sets to secure his spot in the gold final.

DALMEIDA’s ability to perform well in the latter stages is something well-suited to the set-system used in recurve archery competition.

“Archery’s format allows you to come back at almost every stage,” the Brazilian, who became the youngest ever archer to qualify for the Archery World Cup Final this season, said.

“You can win from almost any set. It doesn’t matter what you’ve already done, the next shot is always the most important.”

“This is what I think about. The next step.”

The next step for Marcus in the Nanjing Youth Olympics was a gold medal match clash with LEE Woo Seok. The Korean shot a new world record on the 60 metre qualification round by 19 points to start the competition week, and had only dropped a single set during the eliminations.

Three sets into the final, he hadn’t dropped another.

Marcus had managed to equal LEE in the third, though: 30 to 30. The Korean hadn’t put an arrow out of the 10. Then, in the fourth end, two drifted into the nine – and Marcus clawed the match back to 3-5, needing a win in the last regulation set to force a shoot-off.

The face of archery in Brazil, DALMEIDA managed 29 points with his three arrows. But LEE Woo Seok shot another 30.

“I didn’t lose the final, Woo Seok won it. He was amazing,” said Marcus.

Korea’s gold medallist attributed his performance to nothing but hard work. “It’s because of my training,” he said, holding up his right hand and displaying the gigantic patches of hard skin on his middle three fingers, with which he draws the string.

He did admit he was a little relieved to have it finished. Shooting so many 10s in a row requires a great degree of concentration.

India’s VERMA beat Mete GAZOZ, from Turkey, in a five set bronze medal tussle. GAZOZ lost the first two sets and couldn’t recover.

“It’s a first Olympic medal for India,” said VERMA. “I’m so proud.”

Mete probably shot the tightest group of the eliminations in the fourth set of his last match. Needing a win to stay in the competition, he drilled three arrows into the space between the X10 and 10 ring – and scored a perfect 30.

All four have promising archery careers ahead of them. The last word goes to Brazil’s DALMEIDA, though. With his silver medal – his first international podium – clutched tightly to his chest, and after thanking his support staff, Marcus looked toward to the next step.

“This silver medal is important for my country, for my family and those behind me, and for me,” he said. “I believe I can win a medal at Rio 2016.”

See results and news from the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games, World Archery’s coverage on Facebook and follow @worldarchery on Twitter.

People
Competitions