The first major eliminations of the day were to set up the mixed team finals in all three classes, and all the major para archery nations were in the mix.
The biggest shock of the day were Mongolia: ranked 4th in the recurve mixed team thanks to some punchy ranking round performances from Munkhbaatar Namjilmaa and Selengee Demberel, they beat number one seeds, the much-decorated Wu Chunyan and Zhao Lixue, 5-1 for a place in the gold final – a result that must have sent shock waves through the Chinese camp.
Mongolia will face an Italian pairing of Elisabetta Mijno and Stefano Travisani for gold. ”We’ve been here a few times [in the final], so it’s nice to confirm our ability,” said Mijno. ”Anything can happen, we’re just here to do our best.”
In compound, Türkiye will face China for gold this weekend after beating Great Britain (narrowly) and India (with room to spare) respectively.
China have two younger athletes dominating the W1 tables this competition with Zhang Tianxin and Wang Liya, and that team will take on two familiar faces from Czechia, Sarka Pultar Musilova and David Drahoninsky – the latter of whom who was eliminated in the first round of the individual competition at the hands of Paolo Tonon.
“It didn’t work out in the individuals, but I can make it happen with Sarka this weekend.” said Drahoninsky, now one of the most experienced and decorated archers in the peloton.
“What keeps me going? Archery is like a drug. I won a medal in Beijing and I got addicted.”
The competition continues on Thursday with individual eliminations.
