Indonesia’s Riau Ega Agatha was the orchestrator of the second-round upset, which saw the world number 29 dispatch the world number one in four sets, 6-2. Kim Woojin won the first set, then lost three consecutively, shooting an uncharacteristic seven and a run of three eights in the process.
“I prepared so much for this and I feel that everything is gone now,” said Kim. “I’m in shock. I don’t blame anything or anyone, I just regret not doing well today.”
“The past four years I prepared a lot. I feel really great about getting the gold medal for the team event, but for the individual one I regret a lot because I prepared a lot and now it’s all gone.”
Kim Woojin was the favourite in the men’s individual event at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
The two-time World Archery Champion set a new world record of 700 out of a possible 720 points on the ranking round at the start of the competition, seeding first, and already collected a men’s team gold medal with Korea at Rio 2016.
With Kim out of the competition, the USA’s Brady Ellison – ranked second – becomes the highest remaining seed.
Ellison’s first-round match is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
Other upsets in the first session of individual eliminations included London 2012 silver medallist Aida Roman losing to Alexandra Mirca and Tripartite invitation athlete Htwe San Yu, from Myanmar, knocking out both Taru Kuoppa and Mackenzie Brown.
The Rio 2016 Olympic archery competition continues with individual eliminations on 8-10 August.
