French archers Baptiste Addis, Thomas Chirault and Jean-Charles Valladont became Olympic team vice-champions, beaten in the final by the untouchable South Koreans 5 to 1, thereby bringing the 11th medal to the French delegation.
This is the fourth medal for French archery at the Games since the appearance of the discipline in its current form on the Olympic program in 1972, after the gold of Sébastien Flute in 1992 in Barcelona, the silver of Jean-Charles Valladont in Rio in 2016 and the team bronze of Virginie Arnold, Sophie Dodemont and Bérengère Schuh in Beijing in 2008.
Since 2000, South Korea has now won six of the seven Olympic titles in team play. Only the Italians brought down South Korean men’s archery in London in 2012.
In the final, with scores close to perfection (57, 59 and 59 out of 60 possible), the South Koreans shared the points of the first round (1-1), before winning the two points of rounds 2 and 3 , ensuring victory, against the French who pushed them to their limits (57, 58 and 56 points in the final).
In the semi-final, the French ensured maximum suspense. They were down 2-0 then 4-2, losing the first and third sets. With an exceptional level of play, they snatched the shoot-off by winning the two points of the fourth round (56-55), while an arrow from Turkey was checked under a magnifying glass to be sure that it was not only counted 9 points and not 10.
In the play-offs, the two teams finished with 27 points and were decided by the arrow closest to the center awarded to the French. A little earlier, the French had dominated Italy (6-2) in the quarter-finals.
This silver medal brings smiles back to the French archers after the disillusionment of the women’s team event. Enough to launch the individual events which begin with the 32nd and 16th finals on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
