Australia’s Laura Paeglis has set the highest score by an Australian woman in Olympic Archery in nearly 30 years.
Laura scored 640 after 12 ends in the women’s individual ranking round, the highest score by an Australian woman since the current 72 arrow ranking round format began at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, finishing in 44th place.
Laura shot 317 after six ends to sit in 51st place, before improving to a 323 in the last six ends to move up the standings to 44th.
The 22-year-old said she was proud of her shooting in her Olympic debut.
“I had so much fun out there,” she said.
“I improved throughout the day and I think that's the thing to really focus on.
“It's totally different to anything I've ever shot in any shooting conditions.
“So going out there and actually learning from mistakes was good. Getting better towards the end was really great, and I'm pretty proud of that.”
Laura will now face Caroline Lopez from France in the 1/32 knockout round, but she said her focus will be more on replicating match play conditions rather than on who she is playing.
“I’m not worrying too much about who I'm competing against because at the end of the day it doesn't matter,” she said.
“It's about doing the best I can and putting arrows in the middle. No one can beat 10s. That's my only goal.”
South Korea’s Lim Sihyeon finished in first place and set a new world record of 694.
Meanwhile, in the men’s individual ranking round, Peter Boukouvalas struggled in the windy conditions to finish in 60th place with a score of 638.
The result means he will face world number three Lee Wooseok from Korea in the 1/32 elimination round.
“It was a much lower performance than I was expecting,” Peter said after the ranking round.
“I've been struggling a little bit with my shooting and trying to make it better.
“With the wind and everything else I just tried to make the right choice but it just kept coming up short.
“We fell in the rankings quite low, but we move on to the next match.”
Despite his disappointment at his own result, he was extremely proud of Laura’s performance.
“It's an incredible achievement and she should be proud of it,” he said.
“She's worked hard for it and she got it.”
The pair’s combined score of 1278 wasn’t good enough for them to qualify for the knockout rounds in the Mixed Doubles, finishing in 26th place.
Peter’s 1/32 elimination round match takes place on 31 July at 10.36pm AEST, while Laura’s takes place on 1 August at 11.56pm AEST.
This article was originally written for The Australian Olympic Team. You can read the published version here
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