Archery at the Olympics: Jarno De Smedt ranks 43rd in the classification round

He placed 43rd in the classification round of the Tokyo Olympics archery tournament on Friday.

After the 12 rounds, where each archer shoots six arrows, De Smedt, 21 and 44th in the world, totaled 650 points. “I could have done better,” he responded. “It’s a bit of a shame but I’m happy to have had a better second round than the first where the conditions were worse because of the wind. I made some errors in judgment because of that.”

At the end of this first round, which made it possible to establish a classification between the 64 archers in contention, the native of Bornem knows his opponent in the 32nd finals. It will be the Japanese Yuki Kawata, 22nd Friday, in a duel scheduled for Wednesday at 10:31 Belgian time. “I haven’t played him often but I know him well. But honestly, I don’t care who I’m playing against. I try to shoot the best I can first.” For his first Olympics, De Smedt, who is aiming for a place in the top 16, was not nervous when he joined Yumenoshima Park.

“I had a good night’s sleep because I knew I could shoot without pressure. I struggled a bit with the heat though. I felt it was hotter than in practice.” After entering the competition, the Antwerp resident will be part of the Belgian delegation that will parade during the opening ceremony on Friday at 1:00 p.m. Belgian time. “It’s nice because it helps to put archery in the spotlight but it didn’t have any influence on my level this Friday.”

His coach puts it into perspective: “It won’t really start for four days”

“He’s going to be a little disappointed, he could have taken 10 or 15 more points,” said Francis Notenboom, Jarno De Smedt’s coach. “But even the best scores are below par, which means the wind was quite difficult. It wasn’t blowing hard but kept turning.” If he saw his protégé commit some “serious mistakes”, Francis Noteboom believes that the “last eighteen arrows were pretty good”. “With this score, he could have finished around 20th place,” said the coach of the Antwerp. “It’s still a lap in this ranking. It won’t really start for four days.” In the 32nd final, Jarno De Smedt will face Japan’s Yuki Kawata, 22nd in qualifying. According to Noteboom, performing in his country will not give the Japanese any advantage. “There will be no supporters anyway. The match will be won in the mind. Jarno can do it, especially in short duels”, adds Noteboom, who had also taken part in the Olympics in 1988. He was ranked 52nd at the Seoul Games. “My Games had been bad. A year later, I had won the World Games by beating the Olympic champion. It was my revenge.”