RUBAN starts defence of individual Olympic crown against LIU

The individual men's and women's 1/32 and 1/16 archery elimination rounds continue at Lord's Cricket Ground on Wednesday. The Ukrainian Viktor RUBAN begins the defence of his title today. Men's Individual Lord's Cricket Ground, famous for hosting matches in a traditional cricket contest between England and Australia called the Ashes, will host an archery Ashes match on Wednesday when Taylor WORTH (AUS) and Alan WILLS (GBR) shoot for a place in the 1/16 elimination round. The winner has the prospect of facing world No. 1 Brady ELLISON (USA). Viktor RUBAN (UKR) begins the defence of his Olympic individual gold medal against LIU Zhaowu (CHN). RUBAN has had a mixed time since the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and is not favourite to win gold again. There is the prospect of an all-French meeting in the 1/16 elimination round but only if Thomas FAUCHERON (FRA) beats Witthaya THAMWONG (THA) and Gael PREVOST (FRA) beats Rene Philippe KOUASSI (CIV). OH Jin Hyek (KOR), who has a team bronze medal already, starts his individual campaign against Axel MULLER (SUI). While that match should be routine, OH could have a harder task in the 1/16 elimination if Luis ALVAREZ (MEX) follows the form book and beats Yavor Vasilev HRISTOV (BUL). ALVAREZ won the last World Cup in Ogden, USA in June. Women's Individual World No. 1 Deepika KUMARI (IND) will hope to improve on India's poor archery form so far. She faces Amy OLIVER (GBR), who will have the support of the home crowd and is capable of causing an upset. KI Bo Bae (KOR), who shot the arrow to win the team gold medal on Sunday, meets inexperienced Rand AL-MASHHADANI (IRQ). The 17-year-old from Iraq qualified for the London 2012 Olympic Games in June after receiving an invitation to compete and needed to go to a training camp in Thailand to reach the standard. Khatuna LORIG (USA), in her fifth Olympics, will meet inexperienced Sherab ZAM (BHU) in the 1/32 elimination round. ZAM carried the flag for Bhutan in the Opening Ceremony and is one of two Bhutan athletes at the Games. Before the women's team event CHOI Hyeonju (KOR) looked like the weak link of the Korean team because of her average ranking round performance. That was due to a shoulder injury however, and she shot brilliantly during Sunday's event. Jessica TOMASI (ITA) faces a tough task to overcome her. Source: ONS Edited by World Archery Communication