Paris, FRA – Individual eliminations kicked off in Paris, France for the Canadian Archery team. Having not been on the competition field since the qualification event on July 25th, the Canadian team has been itching to get the competition started.
On a sweltering day, with a heat advisory in effect, Eric Peters took to the field to meet Ilfat Abdullin of Kazakhstan in the round of 32. Taking an early 2-0, Peters and Abdullin tied the second and third set, going into the fourth set with a score of 4-2. Abdullin pushed Peters into a fifth and final set, scoring a 29 in the fourth set. Peters took control again in the fifth set to finish the match with a final score of 6-4.
“For the most part, it’s the Olympic Games, everyone here is going to be a tough match. There are no such things as easy wins here.” said Eric following his second match. “My first match went to 4-4, then there was the heat, and my experiences of being on a stage like this more recently, and with the crowd on my side, helped me to tame the nerves and shoot the arrows when it mattered.”
Moving very quickly onto the 1/16th round, Peters now faced 4th seed, from India Dhiraj Bommadevara. Dropping the first set to Bommadevara, Peters pushed through and came back, taking the last 2 sets with perfect scores of 30 in both ends, to force a shoot off.
The pressure was now on, with the closest arrow to the center deciding who would advance to the 1/8th round. Bommadevara shot first, securing a 10, just inside the ring. Peters, with nerves of steel followed that up with a 10, that was 2.4 centimeters closer to the centre, securing him the win, and advancing to the 1/8th round.
The atmosphere in Les Invalides was electric, which is not something that archers are quite used too, “ This is the biggest crowd that archery may have ever seen,’ said Eric. He continued “Its incredible. It isn’t something we get to experience often in the sport, and just having this atmosphere, its something else!”
That was an amazing performance by Eric!”, said National Coach advisor, Ron van der Hoff. “Joe [Leszner] and Eric executed the plan on the finals field, while Virginie did her part as the agent. Meanwhile, I was in the grandstand, watching it all unfold as thousands of spectators chanted Eric’s name. The story will continue for Eric on Sunday, but now we will give our full focus to Virginie’s moment on August 1.
Elimination matches continue tomorrow in Paris, where Eric’s next opponent will be determined. Peters will have a few more days to prepare for the 1/8th round and final matches. He will take to the field at Les Invalides again on Sunday August. 4th.
Team mate Virginie Chenier will start her individual elimination matches on Thursday Aug 1st, facing Rezza Octavia of Indonesia. Tune into her first match at 12:45 pm EST on August. 1
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For questions or media inquires, please contact:
Kylah Cawley
High Performance Manager
kcawley@archerycanada.ca