TOKYO, Aug 27— Paralympic debutants S. Suresh and Wiro Julin got their archery campaign off to a good start when they recorded their season’s best scores in the ranking round here today.
Suresh, the 2019 world champion, ended the men’s Open recurve qualifiers in 28th spot after shooting 31 arrows for 579 points at the Yumenoshima Park Archery Field here.
The 28-year-old, thus, erased his previous best of 557 points that he recorded at a tournament in the Czech Republic last month.
Meanwhile, Wiro scored 673 points in the men’s Open compound archery qualifiers to better his previous mark of 646 points, which he had also recorded at the same tournament in the Czech Republic.
The 26-year-old ended the ranking round in 26th spot out of 36 archers.
Wiro, who has a bye in the first round, will take on Bair Shigaev of the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) in the second round tomorrow (Aug 28).
Suresh, meanwhile, will square off with Bato Tsydendorzhiev, also of RPC, in the first round on Friday (September 3).
National coach Marzuki Zakaria said he was satisfied with Suresh and Wiro’s performances as this was their maiden outing in the Paralympics.
While admitting that the weather condition and strong winds had affected their performance, Marzuki was quick to point out that the ranking positions were no guarantee of winning a medal.
“There were archers at the Olympic Games who were sent packing earlier (in the knockout rounds) despite performing well in the ranking round.
“I hope our archers can perform consistently in the knockout rounds,” he told Bernama.
— Bernama
