TOKYO (Reuters) – The world’s top ranked male archer Brady Ellison of the United States was knocked out on Saturday in the quarter-finals of the individual event at the Olympics, ending his quest for a first gold at his fourth Games.
Ellison lost to Turkey’s Mete Gazoz 3-7 in set points.
“The Olympics are definitely the biggest thing that we shoot. It is just harder to win the Olympics,” Ellison said.
“Every match is different. Every moment is different.”
The 32-year-old set a world record in 2019 and was taking momentum into the Tokyo Olympics as he targeted his first Olympic gold.
Nonetheless, Ellison said he was happy to be reunited with his wife and an infant son who crawled for the first time early on Saturday. His Slovenian wife is also an archer.
“I get to go home to them and go do all that fun dad stuff that I’ve been missing out on for the last month,” he said.
But he added: “I’ll be back in Paris and LA.”
South Korea’s Kim Woo-jin also crashed out, following upset losses by his two team mates earlier this week.
After winning gold in the team event, Kim lost to Taiwan’s Tang Chih-Chun 4-6 in the individual.
South Korea has dominated the Olympic archery event, winning gold in the two teams’ and women’s events, but will not complete a clean sweep.
Kim said he was nervous with some of his arrows going off target, but added he would come back for the next Olympics.
“This is what life is. Not everything has a happy ending,” Kim said.
(Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
