The joy of Alejandra Valencia kept burning the promise of a medal for Mexico. The second in these Olympic Games. The Mexican looked unstoppable in the previous rounds of the individual archery tournament until she ran into American Mackenzie Brown. The match had to be decided in a final round, with one arrow each. Both hit the center with a 10. The judges had to decide which arrow was closest to the center and, by inches, Mexico was left out.
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It was the last Mexican archer in Tokyo. Her teammates fell in the previous rounds: Aída Román, the one with experience, fell in the lead up to the round of 16, and Ana Paula Vázquez fell in the first phase. Luis Álvarez stayed in the 32nd finals. Alejandra Valencia (Hermosillo, 26 years old) made her presentation in Tokyo 2020 a great joy for Mexico. Together with Álvarez he won the bronze medal in the mixed team. It was the award after competing in his third Olympic Games.
The Mexican had had a great elimination phase. In the first two rounds she eliminated Belarusians Kazlouskaya (three sets, 6-0) and Dziominskaya (five sets, 7-5), who pushed Valencia to the limit. The measure, key in her, was key. In the round of 16 the light rain was not a problem for Valencia. The Mexican swept against the French Lisa Barbelin in three sets (6-0) and with all her arrows in the yellow zone of the best shots: the nine and the 10. Already in the quarterfinals against Brown, the Mexican had almost won the first two sets, but in both cases he sent the arrow away from the center. Valencia’s third set was perfect with three arrows at 10. In the fourth set everything was again a draw, but the Mexican had to win the next to sentence everything. The wind and the arrows were capricious and it was again a draw, that is 5-5. In the tiebreaker arrow the American was more accurate (6-5).
Mexico has won three archery medals: silver from Aída Román, bronze from Mariana Avitia in London 2012 and bronze from Luis Álvarez and Ale Valencia. The country, unlike Rio 2016, was able to celebrate a medal from its archers.
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