RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 11 ― National archer Khairul Anuar Mohamad's hopes of a medal outing at the Rio Olympic Games were just blown away in the windy and cold weather in Sambodromo, near here, here yesterday.
The 24-year-old archer, with a nickname Robin Hood, failed to adjust his setting on the bow against the wind direction at the venue and was knocked out in the second elimination round.
In the first round of 64, Khairul Anuar had an easy opening when he disposed 43rd ranked, Andres Pila of Columbia, 6-0 after posting 78-71 points against his opponent in the individual recurve event.
However, a delay in adjusting to the wind's direction in the final three sets caused him a place in the round of 16 when he lost to German Florian Floto 6-4
“I cannot blame the wind or the unstable platform as all archers faces similar situation. I was slow to adjust the sight in my equipment. Just disappointed,” said Khairul Anuar after his event here.
Infact, he said, he lost his rhythm, which he described as “feeling”, in the last week of training in South Korea before coming here.
He said it happened to archers and would take time, sometimes months, to recover the rhythm.
“I am absolutely not happy with my performance as I couldn't get the 'feeling', “said the 41 world ranked archer, who reached the individual quarterfinal in London four years ago.
Besides him, two other archers failed to get past the first round when Hafiq Kamaruddin, ranked 50th lost 6-0 to Zach Garrett of United States, while Muhammad Akmal Nor Hasrin also lost with a similar score against Liebana Rodriguez of Spain.
The national team had a poor outing when they were ranked 12th, the bottom team in the team ranking qualifiers here and suffered a 6-2 defeat to France in the team's elimination round.
The team leaves for home on Saturday. ― Bernama
