The most extraordinary contest we’ve seen in Paris? It was probably the archery gold medal match on Wednesday. Step up, Kim Woo-jin of South Korea. You, too, Brady Ellison of the USA.
Remember, the three things that never come back: the spoken word, the spent arrow, and the lost opportunity. You’ve each got three arrows to spend, to put into yonder circular target 70 metres away – and whichever one of you has the highest combined score, wins the set, of which there will be five. Best of five, gets the gold.
OK? Start your engines, cool your fins and do a little twanging. We are about to begin. Friends? They go to two sets all, before in the fifth and final set Ellison nails the bullseye three times, for a 10-10-10 score.
Woo-jin has to follow suit to tie it and ...
he does! Tie-breaker time. If it’s a tie again, it’s the one closest to the centre that wins. Ellison goes first and it’s another 10.
Woo-jin responds. He pulls back the string. He lets it fly – straight and true.
BULLSEYE! In archery’s answer to the five-thousandths of a second that separated gold from silver in the men’s 100 metres, Woo-jin’s arrow was judged to be 5mm closer, to get the gold. From 70 metres away! South Korea’s Kim Woo-jin in Paris. Credit: AP Big shoes to Phil This was the week that the doyen of world cycling commentary, Phil Liggett, the man many Australians once fell asleep to every night of the Tour de France, announced his retirement from calling the Olympics, after cal.