PARIS (AP) — Chad archer Israel Madaye nearly missed the scoring rings completely on an errant shot, but he hit a bullseye with South Korea’s passionate fans.
Madaye, a flag bearer for his central African nation, scored just one point of a possible 10 with one of his arrows and produced just 66 points in three sets during his debut Olympic match against South Korea’s Kim Woo-jin on Tuesday.
It is possible to score zero, but even scoring as little as one point is rare at this level of the sport. It came on the third of three shots in the second set.
He bounced back and scored 25 points on three arrows in the third set, winning over the South Korean fans. He felt the love, posting the message, “Thank you Corea” with an Instagram photo of him removing his arrows.
South Korea is a powerhouse in archery, having won team gold on both the men’s and women’s sides. Its fans love the sport and showed up to Paris in droves. So when they got a chance to support a self-taught archer who gave up a career as an electrician to chase his Olympic dreams, they flooded the comments with positive messages.
“Madaye player! Thank you so much for showing what Olympic spirit is,” one translated message said.
“You did a great job more than medals,” another translated message said.
A better shot wouldn’t have changed the result. Kim is a three-time Olympic gold medalist in the team category, a nine-time world champion and one of the favorites to win the individual title. He scored the most points in the ranking round that determines the seeding. He also holds the Olympic record for the highest score in a ranking round with 700 points in 2016.
Things started fine for the 36-year-old Madaye. He lost the first set 29-26 — a respectable score. But he scored just 15 points in the second set, including the one-point arrow on his final attempt. He lost the second set 29-15 and the third 30-25.
Kim scored two points on each set to win the match 6-0. He scored 88 of a possible 90 points in the three sets.
After defeating Madaye, Kim won his next match against Chinese Taipei’s Lin Zih-Siang 6-0 to reach the quarterfinals. He scored 89 points in that match, one point short of perfection.
After the match, Kim focused on his single arrow that didn’t score 10 points.
“I was also very nervous, that’s why I think that happened,” he said. “I’m trying to do my best, but mistakes happen. I’m still human. The nine just happened to me.”
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