OATO Day 4: Eric Peters wins single-arrow shootout to advance in archery knockouts
Ottawa’s Eric Peters earned a victory of the most epic variety to advance to the final 16 of the Olympic men’s individual archery competition today on the grounds of Les Invalides hotel in Paris.
After qualifying in 36th the day before the Olympics officially opened, Peters had his first elimination matches of the Games. In his first match, Peters engaged in tight battle with Ilfat Abdullin of Kazakhstan. Tied 4-4 through four sets, Peters won the contest in the deciding fifth set 28-26 to setup what proved to be an even closer battle in his next match.
“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,” Peters said via Archery Canada. “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.”
In his second match of the day, Peters faced the #4 seed, Dhiraj Bommadevara of India. Bommadevara posed a tough challenge for Peters out of the gate, taking the first set. Peters quickly answered back with two bullseyes in the second set to tie the score up 2-2, but fell behind again with a loss in the third set.
Both competitors hit all three bullseyes in the fourth set, putting Peters in a must-win situation in the final set. The 27-year-old responded with his sixth consecutive bullseye to edge Bommadevara 30-29. That forced a single-arrow shootout to decide it all, with the closest to the centre to be declared the winner.
The in-stadium announcer fully embraced the opportunity to build the suspense of the moment with a spectacular setup speech:
“Only one of the two will make it forward,” he bellowed. “The other one’s campaign will end right here tonight and the winner will sail forth to round of 1/8.
“Two men on a mission to be the best they can be. It’s all going to come down to one single shot. A dividing moment for their Olympic campaign, Paris 2024. The power of now. The power of what we are about to witness.”
The two competitors offered contrasting energy before their big shots. Peters and his coach were smiling, laughing and nodding – eating it all up and pumping up the crowd. Bommadevara was all business, full focus. The Indian shot first and hit a 10, but near the outer circle, measuring 54.5 mm from the centre, to leave a small opening.
Peters stepped up and fired his shot from 70 metres away, and landed just 36.1 mm from the middle to take the sudden-death showdown.
“This is the biggest crowd that archery may have ever seen,” underlined Peters, who broke through to win a silver medal at last year’s world championships. “It’s incredible. It isn’t something we get to experience often in the sport, and just having this atmosphere, it’s something else.”
