Beijing Olympic Games

Updated: 2008-08-13 19:42:54

(BEIJING, August 13) — With the crowd chanting his name after each arrow, No. 10 seed Lee Chang-hwan of the Republic of Korea (ROK) shot a near perfect score of 117 out of 120 to set a 12-arrow Olympic record in the Men’s Individual Elimination rounds at the Olympic Green Archery Field on Wednesday.

Lee and his teammate Im Dong-hyun, along with three of the top four seeded archers, Juan Rene Serrano of Mexico, Viktor Ruban of Ukraine and Park Kyung-mo (ROK), advanced as expected to the 1/8 Elimination Round.

Other archers who qualified for the top 16 include Alan Wills of Great Britain and Victor Wunderle of the United States.

In an exciting match that came down to the very last arrow, Wills, the No. 21 seed, took out the reigning Olympic champion Marco Galiazzo of Italy, in the 1/16 Elimination round, 110-109.

Wunderle, the Individual silver medalist at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, kept the USA’s hopes alive for an Individual medal when he defeated Ilario Di Buo’ of Italy in a two-arrow shoot-off following a 108-108 tie. Both Di Buo’ and Wunderle shot a nine on the first arrow, but it was Wunderle who conquered with a 10 to Di Buo’s eight on the second arrow.

In the biggest upset of the day, No. 2 seed Mangal Singh Champia of India failed to advance to the top 16. Champia lost to No. 31 seed Bair Badenov of Russia, 109-108, but Badenov did not win his next match.

Before the Men’s Individual Elimination Rounds began on Wednesday, the Olympic Record was 115. Although it was Lee who broke the record, three other archers, Serrano, Park, and Jacek Proc of Poland shot 116s in their Elimination matches.

The Olympic record broken Wednesday was set 12 years ago at the Altanta 1996 Olympic Games by Oh Kyo-moon (ROK). Oh is in Beijing as the head coach of the Australian Archery team.

The Men’s 1/8 Elimination matches begin at 10:30 on Friday, August 15 at the Olympic Green Archery Field.