ParalympicsGB's oldest athlete at Tokyo 2020, John Stubbs, exited the men’s individual compound open archery event at the 1/16 elimination stage after a dramatic shoot-off defeat to Marian Marecak.
The 56-year-old archer – who was the ParalympicsGB flag bearer alongside Ellie
Simmonds at the Opening Ceremony – fell to his Slovakian opponent after both archers scored 138 following 15 arrows each but Marecak’s decisive shot was 3mm closer to the bullseye.
Defeat means Stubbs is unable to add to his gold medal from Beijing 2008 and his silver medal from Rio 2016 and despite hitting six 10’s and two X’s, the five he scored on the third arrow of the fourth end ultimately proved costly against the 14th seed.
In temperatures around 31°C and light winds at Yumenoshima Final Field, Stubbs’ ParalympicsGB teammate Nathan MacQueen also failed to progress past the 1/16 elimination stage following a 142-138 defeat against 11th seed Nail Gatin.
The Russian Paralympic Committee athlete pulled away after finding himself tied with MacQueen at 85-85 after three ends.
MacQueen hit three 10’s and two X’s in defeat but a seven with the second arrow in the fourth end handed the advantage to Gatin and he will look to regroup ahead of joining Jess Stretton in the compound mixed team event on Sunday.
Tom Duggan, performance director of Archery GB, said: “Obviously John and Nathan will both be disappointed not to be progressing to the next round. Conditions were challenging with both the heat and changes in wind.
“We’ve still got lots of opportunities – Phoebe’s (Paterson Pine) on the back of a really solid performance yesterday and we always want to be competitive in the compound open mixed team so we’ll give it our best shot tomorrow.”
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