Con two victories and a tight duel against the recent two-time Olympic champion by team, the South Korean Kim Je Deok, the antioqueño Santiago Arcila This Sunday he fulfilled the best performance of our country in the history of the archery at the Olympic Games.
“I am very happy for the personal performance and for the team, because I know that we did very well, we are very motivated, with this result, it is a pity that we did not win a medal, but I am very happy,” said Santiago.
Until Paris 2024, no Colombian goalkeeper had known victory in elimination bracket duels. The first to achieve this was Jorge Enríquez and the second was Santiago Arcila, who also won his second duel and reached the round of 16, in which he was very close to advancing among the top 8.
This Sunday’s duel took place against the recent winner of the second consecutive Olympic team gold, who arrived as a favorite and imposed conditions in the first two sets, taking a comfortable 0-4 advantage, however, Santiago had not planned to be in zero and began a beautiful comeback.
In the third set, the South Korean gave the advantage, he threw a pair of nines and Santiago took advantage to win the set and score a goal. In the fourth set, Kim again gave advantages and Santiago took advantage to tie the series 4-4 and put the Olympic champion in trouble.
For the definition, Kim again gave the advantage, but unfortunately Santiago threw an 8 that led him to a tight defeat.
“I was very calm, I enjoyed this match a lot, standing there gives a lot of emotion, a lot of adrenaline, I gave 100% and this leaves me very happy,” added the Colombian.
With the elimination of Santiago, Colombian archery says goodbye to Paris 2024 with several interesting facts: for the first time they competed in men’s teams, in a mixed team, an individual victory was achieved with Jorge Enríquez and they reached the third round with Santiago Clay.
In addition, archery had the youngest athlete in the national delegation, Andrés Hernández, and one of those who has participated the most in the Olympics with the Antioquia Ana Maria Rendon who competed in his fourth Olympic Games.
* With information from the Colombian Olympic Committee
