World number one Choi Misun of Korea finished first in the women’s ranking round at Rio 2016 with 669 out of a possible 720 points. She won both her first two matches during the last day of eliminations to secure a spot in the last 16 of the Olympic archery competition.
Choi beat the Dominican Republic’s first-ever Olympic archer, Yessica Camilo, in straight sets, then Chinese Taipei’s Le Chien-Ying, 6-2 – on a rain-soaked afternoon in the Sambodromo.
“It’s different every match,” she said, referring to the weather. “It can make the arrow direction unstable. Today was a rainy day, but I still got good results so I’m happy with it.”
Since matchplay was introduced to the Olympic archery competition in 1992, three top-seeded athletes have walked away with Olympic gold – all of them women.
The first was Cho Youn-Jeong in 1992, second Park Sung-Hyun in 2004 and third, and most recently, Ki Bo Bae at London 2012.
The closest number-one ranked man to a title came in ’92. Chung Jae-Hun lost the final to Frenchman Sebastien Flute in Barcelona, taking silver.
With Kim Woojin already out of the competition in Rio, no men’s top seed will have a chance at Olympic gold until at least Tokyo 2020 in four years time – but Choi could add another mark to the women’s tally.
She’ll have to overcome defending champ, and teammate, Ki for that.
Whether or not Choi becomes the fourth top-seeded archer to collect Olympic gold in history, the 20-year-old has time on her side. It sounds like she’ll be on the scene for a while.
When asked if she would continue competing after Rio, Choi replied: “I have never imagined that I wouldn’t shoot an arrow everyday.”
Choi Misun faces Russia’s Inna Stepanova in the third round.
The women’s individual finals take place on 11 August at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
