D’Almeida focused on maintaining pressure after strong qualifying

With his formidable height, canary yellow jersey and pencil-thin moustache, Marcus D’Almeida is easy to spot on the shooting line. 

Shooting on target 41A, two-thirds of the way down the windy range, during qualifying on Tuesday at the 2021 Hyundai World Archery Championships, the Brazilian recurver produced an impressive second seed at these world championships.

“It just happened, I don’t know how to explain it,” D’Almeida said. “I focused on myself. Not the target, not about the event. Because the wind is not easy. It was not easy today.”

The wind was an unavoidable topic of conversation on Tuesday, with forecasts estimating gusts as high as 30 kph.

It wasn’t a question of whether the elements influenced results, but which archers were best equipped to overcome them.

D’Almeida was just one point behind leader Kim Woojin of Korea at halfway but dropped back from the two-time world champion in the closing ends. He finished with 670, seven behind Kim, but as the only other recurve archer to top 660 during a day on which many would have probably preferred to stay indoors.

The two-time Olympian, who finished ninth overall in Tokyo, hasn’t been a big qualifier over his career.

D’Almeida seeded 40th at the most recent Games but he still won two matches.

The automatic bye into the third round he receives as a member of the top eight means two match wins here in Yankton will put him into the last eight – and an appearance on finals day, Sunday, at these world championships.

“I’m very, very excited. But today is not about the qualification. It’s about the world championship,” D’Almeida said.

“I want to do well in the competition, not just qualifications. I think that’s the difference between great athletes and bad athletes. If you don’t see the result you want, you keep going. Continue pushing until you get what you want.”

The individual competition continues on Thursday at the world championships.