THIS WAS A bittersweet morning for Kerrie Leonard, as the Irish archer narrowly missed out on a place in the last 16 of the women’s individual compound open elimination.
The Meath native was knocked out by China’s Jiamin Zhou, a gold medallist at the 2016 Paralympic Games, at the Esplanade des Invalides in Paris.
Leonard had qualified for the last 32 after scoring 653/720 in Thursday’s ranking round.
Here, she shot 135 against Zhou, who shot 140 to win by just five points.
The 34-year-old Irishwoman made the dream start with a 10 arrow, adrenaline pumping from the get go. Leading 29-28 after the end of the first match, Leonard then saw Zhou take the second 27-25. She was particularly disappointed with a seven there.
Leonard levelled the match 82-82 after the third stanza, but Zhou took the fourth by two to claim a hard-earned victory.
“I knew going to bed last night that I was 21st seed going up against the 12th seed but I actually kind of justified that I didn’t shoot to my best yesterday,” Leonard told The 42 afterwards.
“If she shot to her best, we were actually pretty well matched, and you could see that throughout the entire game, we were tit-for-tat for the whole thing.
“Seven definitely… not necessarily put me psychologically on a back foot, but it put me physically on the back foot. Some of those shots were wind-related as well.
“I’m not disappointed necessarily in my performance. I am annoyed that people who are here supporting me don’t have an interest for tomorrow — hopefully they’ll stay and keep watching archery, but they won’t be there to see me.”
Leonard’s family watched her in live competition for the first time this morning, with her grandmother, Mary Duffy, among the spectators at the stunning Esplanade des Invalides.
The archer was clearly disappointed, but was pleased with her solid showing in Paris and is proud to be a two-time Paralympian. She has no regrets on this occasion.
“I suppose it’s the nature of the Games, everyone keeps asking you: where do you want to finish, where do you want to go, have you got a medal in your future? All of these things that are distractions.
“My reaction to that every time was, ‘What I want to do is come away from this really proud with my performance,’ because I’ve never come away from a competition happy. There’s always been something else that I could have done, something else that I could have improved on, and I’ve been very critical of my performance in the past.
“The plan coming in here was win, lose or draw, just come away happy and see the positives in what I’ve done. I certainly did that yesterday, and I feel like that happened today too. I would have loved to have gone through but I think I’ll be okay.”
On her overall Games experience, Leonard added: “For sure, it’s been way more relaxed, everyone is just embracing it.
“Having the crowd here is a completely new experience. The fact that archery and table tennis are completely sold out for a Para event is just blowing my mind. With TV, the sport is getting exposure and hopefully people get into it.”
- Additional reporting from Ciarán Kennedy
