PARIS, France – Brady Ellison, competing at his fifth Olympic Games, came through two elimination rounds on Thursday to set up a last 16 contest with Berkim Tumer (TUR) on Sunday.
Ellison began with a 6-2 win over another Turkish archer in Abdullah Yildirmis, setting up a second round meeting Wenchao Kao of China, with the 35-year-old also claiming that one 6-2.
Tumer reached the 1/8 stage with a 6-4 win over Carlos Rojas (MEX) and a 6-2 success over Steve Wijler (NED). The 22-year-old Tumer is the 10th seed, having shot 676 in qualification, one point less than Ellison, the seventh seed.
The next stage of the men’s individual will see the competition through to its completion, with Sunday starting at the 1/8 round and ending with the gold medal match, and Ellison expects the atmosphere to be far different to what they have seen up to date.
“This has been the first two rounds,” Ellison began. “This is for real for the athletes but for the crowd it’s not yet. We’re not yet shooting for medals, so I think it’s awesome, it’s a good taste of what it’s going to be like and good to knock off the dust and be inside a finals venue for the first time in a long time.”
Ellison will be back at Invalides, the setting for the archery, before Sunday. He steps back into the arena on Friday when he and Casey Kaufhold tackle Uzbekistan in the 1/8 round of the mixed team competition. The winners will face Japan or Turkey in the quarterfinals and Ellison admits there are aspects he still needs to work on before then.
“I still really want to execute my game plan,” he said. “The first match I felt like I did it alright, the second match I did not. So, I’m going to go back to the practice field and get ready for mixed teams tomorrow.
“I won the first two matches but now the focus is on tomorrow and just quit thinking about today and just start trying to execute the plan again.”
On the women’s side, both Kaufhold and Catalina GNoriega went out at the 1/16 stage. GNoriega opened on Tuesday with a 6-0 win over the world number 10 Katharina Bauer (GER) but lost in a one arrow shootoff to sixth seed Diananda Choirunisa (INA).
Kaufhold, the fourth seed, defeated Fatoumata Sylla (GUI) 6-2 on Thursday in the 1/32 round before exiting 7-3 at the hands of Chien-Ying Lei (TPE). Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez earlier fell 6-2 to Alejandra Valencia (MEX).
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