Javier off his mark, yields to Taiwanese

BEIJING  – Filipino Mark Javier could not get over his first Olympic jitters as he fell to Taiwanese ace Kuo Cheng Wei, 106-102, in a battle of nerves and crashed out of the elimination round of the archery individual event yesterday at the Olympic Green Archery Range here.

Javier, ranked 36th after the ranking round, and the 29th ranked Taiwanese were tied at 86 going into the last two arrows. Kuo made a perfect 10, while Javier shot an 8 in the 11th.

The Taiwanese wrapped it up with another bull’s eye, taking the fight out of the Filipino who went on to finish his shot – another 8.

Kuo advanced to the round of 16 of the 64-player, knockout competition.

“This is a war of nerves. What I experienced here is different from what I had in the World Cup and the World Championships,” said Javier, 27, of his Olympic debut.

The 12-arrow Olympic format, where a player could win with the breaks of the game, was simply not cut out for the Filipino who is used to 72-arrow competition, which makes allowances for player adjustments.

Javier got off on the wrong foot right in the first two arrows, shooting double 8’s against Kuo’s double 9.

“In a one-on-one you have to make good your first shots. What I did in the practice range before the match – footing and stance — was what I did in the match, but I had to adjust my sight after that because the target (at 70m) was low,” said the 5-9, 110 lb bet from Dumaguete.

Kuo had a 9-9 in the next two shots against Javier’s 9-7 for a four-shot lead.

On the fifth and sixth shot, it was the Taiwanese’s turn to falter. He had an 8 against Javier’s 9 in the fifth arrow and a disastrous 5 in the sixth against Javier’s 9, giving Javier a 50-49 lead going into the last six arrows.

“When he scored a 5 I didn’t notice until I saw on the scoreboard I was one point ahead,” he said.

But the Taiwanese, third in the world championships last year, showed nerves of steel. He leveled the count at 67 when he shot a 9-9 against 9-8 by Javier. Javier matched Kuo’s bull’s eye on his ninth shot, and were both equal anew with identical 9s on the 10th.

Then came the Taiwanese’s two perfect 10s.

“It’s only here that I experienced a close encounter. My experience here is different from what I had in the World Cup and World Championships,” said Javier. This is the first time I played before a huge crowd. It’s an experience like no other.”

Over 1,000 fans from the Mainland cheered Kuo, who comes from a province of China. Among the Filipinos in the stands was Philippine Olympic Committee secretary general Steve Hontiveros.

“I’ll first take a rest, then I’ll evaluate my options,” said the Silliman U information technology student, who is not ruling out a comeback.