Sawt Falasteen - Olympic archery opens with history and Napoleon for company

It was a day of almost uninterrupted conquest for South Korea. Nam Suh-yeon was second in the women's qualifying and Kim Woo-jin and Kim Je-deok topped men's qualifying.

The ancient martial competition is being held on the lawn in front of the gilded dome of France's military museum, where Napoleon was entombed in 1861.

Thursday's qualifiers represented the calm before the tumult. So that all 64 qualifiers could shoot at once, the competition was held on the practice range, which has no space for spectators.

The archers lined up, side by side, all firing six arrows before they paraded together across to the targets to check their scores. After the 12th, and final round, they were accompanied by scattered applause from coaches and officials.

For the knockout rounds, when only two archers shoot at the same time, competition will move to the main arena with, for archery, an unprecedented capacity of 8,000.

"The thing I'm most looking forward to is the crowd," said American Casey Kaufhold, who competed in front of the empty stands at the Covid-hit Tokyo Olympics.

"I love shooting in front of a crowd and I find that fun."

The ony American man in the competition, world record holder Brady Ellison wanted it to be as raucous as the infamous 16th hole at golf's Phoenix Open.

"I want it to be loud and proud," he said. "I want it to be like the Phoenix Open, you know, the 16th green. Just people throwing crap and just loud."

Ellison, who equalled an archery Olympic record on Thursday by competing at his fifth Games, said he was not worried about controlling his adrenaline level.

"I want to step into that stadium and have it be so loud that they raise the hair off my arms. It's what we're here for, right?" he said. "After Tokyo, anything is going to be better in the stands."

- 'There's nothing better' -

If competitors glance up as they shoot, they can see the four raised, gilded statues on the Pont Alexandre III hovering above their targets. But, said American coach Chris Webster, competitors are blind to the environment "when you're in it."

However, he added "when you take that step back and truly appreciate where we are in this venue, there's nothing better."

South Koreans have won nine out of the last 10 women's golds. The records the 20-year-old Lim shot down, as she scored 694 out of a maximum of 720, belonged to compatriots, including the world record of 692 set by Kang Chae-young in 2019.

"I was very nervous because it was my first Olympics, and I tried to enjoy the game as much as I could," Lim said.

Her closest challenger was, inevitably, another South Korean, Nam Suh-yeon, with 688.

Yang Xiaolei of China was third on 673, 17 points behind Lim. Kaufhold, who entered the Olympics as the top-ranked woman, was on 672.

The men's competition was tighter, Kim Woo-jin shot 686 to lead by four. Just nine points separated Kim Je-deok in second from the 17th-best on the day, Brazilian Marcus D'Almeida.

All 64 competitors still advance to the singles knockout stage. Thursday's scores determined seedings for the singles and doubles. Some nations, including South Korea, always select their highest-scoring qualifier in mixed doubles, so Lim gave herself a chance of three golds.

"I am grateful for the opportunity to take on the mixed match challenge. I will try to seize the opportunity," she said.

Lim shot 72 times on Thursday. In the head-to-head knock-out, where the winner is the first to take three 10-arrow sets, Lim might only shoot 30, in victory or defeat, when she faces the lowest-ranked qualifier, Alondra Rivera of Puerto Rico in the first round.

K.AbuTaha--SF-PST