The last day of the Round of 64 and Round of 32 matches brought rain and wind, but it didn’t bring too much in the way of dramatics. In fact, in the Round of 64 matches in the morning, everything went according to ranking.
It wasn’t until the Round of 32 that we got to see some semblance of an upset.
Florian Floto of Germany – who had beaten Samuli Piipo of Finland in the first match of the day – came back from a two-set deficit, winning the last set with a perfect 30 and upsetting Malaysia’s Khairul Anuar Mohamad 6-4.
Then on the women’s side, Bombayla Devi Laishram from India, ranked 69th in the world, eliminated Chinese Taipei’s Lin Shih-Chia, a medal contender and the silver medalist at the 2015 World Championship in Copenhagen, Denmark, in their Round of 32 match, after both women flew through their Round of 64 matches with ease.
There was some excitement in the Round of 64, as 52nd-ranked Baard Nesteng of Norway met 55th-ranked Yu Guan-Lin. With the score tied at five after the fifth set, the two moved to a shootout. Nesteng shot a nearly perfect arrow, just missing the bullseye; but it was enough to advance him, as Yu Guan-Lin couldn’t match it, managing only a nine.
Nesteng went on to lose in the Round of 32 to Japan’s Takaharu Furukawa
It wouldn’t be long before there was another shootout, either. After beating Georgia’s Yuliya Lobzhenidze and Karina Lipiarska-Palk of Poland, respectively, Alejandra Valencia of Mexico and Yasemin Anagoz of Turkey met in the Round of 32, tying after five sets. Valencia advanced to the Round of 16 with a perfect 10, while Anagoz was only able to hit the nine ring.
The final men’s Round of 32 match of the morning session featured the 28th-ranked and 23rd-ranked archers in the world. David Pasqualucci and Antonio Fernandez, respectively, cruised through their first-round matches. However, Fernandez came out on top, eliminating Pasqualucci with a 6-2 score.
The afternoon brought the third and final American, 21-year-old Zach Garrett, to the range, shooting against Malaysia’s Haziq Kamaruddin. Garrett took that match 6-0, before meeting Crispin Duenas of Canada in the Round of 32. After the fourth set, Garrett was up 5-3 before shooting a 29 in the final set, taking the match and advancing to the Round of 16 on Friday.
One of the more exciting matches of the day saw 8th-ranked Kristine Esebua of Georgia and 12th-ranked Deepika Kumari of India – both of whom were serious medal contenders – go head-to-head. It was a close match, but Kumari came away with the victory, and the chance to meet Italy’s Guendalina Sartori, ranked 17. Kumari won that match, as well, 6-2.
For a full list of the results, click here.
Coverage resumes tomorrow morning at 8AM ET for the women’s Round of 16, before the medal matches start in the afternoon.