The final 16 archers in the men’s individual event competed for a chance to shoot for a gold medal on Friday, with South Korea taking another Olympics archery gold.
The final archery event of the 2016 Rio Olympics took place on Friday, as the final 16 archers from the men’s individual competition battled for their medals. The Round of 16 started the day’s competition, and only one archer was upset. Fifth-seeded Atanu Das from India was taken out by Lee Seung-yun from South Korea, as the South Koreans continued their dominance in archery.
In the quarterfinals, the competition got really intense, as 2012 London Olympics silver medalist, Takaharu Furukawa of Japan faced second-ranked Brady Ellison from the United States. Ellison continued his strong Olympic performance, crushing Furukawa by a score of 6-2. The win would propel the American to a semifinal match against South Korea’s Ku Bon-chan.
Bon-chan made it to the semifinals by defeating Australia’s Taylor Worth in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Bon-chan beat Ellison by a score of 6-5, eliminating the second-ranked archer in the field.
France’s Jean-Charles Valladont, who was ranked eighth after the ranking round, continued to roll on Friday, beating Italy’s Mauro Nespoli in the quarters. He would go on to defeat Sjef van der Berg of the Netherlands in the semis, securing his spot in the Gold Medal Match against Bon-chan.
In the Bronze Medal Match, Ellison picked up his second medal of this Olympics, defeating van der Berg by a score of 6-2. Ellison was a part of the United States team that won the silver in the team competition, so this Olympics was a successful one for him personally. While he is most likely disappointed to not get the gold, Ellison had an incredible tournament.
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The gold medal was won by . The South Korean archer made little work of Valladont in the final, defeating the Frenchman 7-3. It was Bon-chan’s second gold medal of this Olympics, as he and his South Korea teammates won the team competition this past weekend.
MEDAL RESULT | Archery: Men's Individual
For South Korea, they swept every gold medal in archery during the Olympics, winning the men and women’s team competitions, while Chang Hye-jin won the women’s individual to go along with Bon-chan’s gold on Friday.