DAY 9 ROUNDUP
Eric Peters of Kitchener, Ont., who won a silver medal in archery at last year’s world championships, won’t be rising up the Paris Olympics podium. Peters was defeated 6-2 by Mauro Nespoli of Italy on Sunday in the men’s individual elimination round.
Jamaician sprinter withdraws from 200m event for unspecified reasonThe Canadian Press
· Posted: Aug 04, 2024 5:04 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago
Eric Peters of Kitchener, Ont., rose to fifth in the world’s recurve archery rankings in a little over a year. (Punit Paranjpe/AFP via Getty Images)Eric Peters went from 64th to fifth in the world’s recurve archery rankings in just over a year.
But, the 27-year-old marksman of Kitchener, Ont., who won a silver medal at last year’s world championships, won’t be rising up the Paris Olympics podium.
Peters was defeated 6-2 by Mauro Nespoli of Italy on Sunday in the men’s individual elimination round.
The 36-year-old Nespoli won individual silver at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and was a member of the Italian teams that won gold at the 2012 Summer Olympics and silver at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
He won Sunday’s first set 28-23, then tied the second (30-30) and third (28-28) sets, before winning the fourth 29-26 to clinch the showdown.
“This is the biggest crowd that archery may have ever seen,” Peters said before facing Nespoli. “It’s incredible. It isn’t something we get to experience often in the sport, and just having this atmosphere, it’s something else.”
In July 2023, Peters travelled to Berlin and broke through to earn Canada’s highest finish of all-time at the World Archery Championships when he placed second. His world silver medal also secured Team Canada an Olympic qualification position for Paris.
Shericka Jackson a no-show for 200m sprintJamaican sprinter Shericka Jackson pulled out of the women’s 200 meters Sunday and will not race for an individual medal at the Paris Games.
Jackson, the defending world champion who is the second-fastest woman of all time in the 200, had previously withdrawn from the 100, saying it was partly because of a leg injury she suffered in a tuneup race last month. It is unclear why she pulled out of Sunday’s race.
It turns American Gabby Thomas into the clear favourite to win the 200. Thomas cruised through her qualifying heat in 22.20 seconds, as did Julien Alfred, who returned to the track and ran 22.41 about 13 hours after beating Sha’Carri Richardson in the 100.
Jackson’s exit deals yet another blow to the Jamaican women, a perennial Olympic powerhouse that had captured 15 of the 24 Olympic medals in the 100 and 200 between 2008 and 2021.
All three sprinters from Jamaica’s 100 sweep in Tokyo have been absent in Paris. Elaine Thompson-Herah, the 100 and 200 champion, shut down her season earlier this year with an Achilles tendon injury.
Only minutes before Saturday night’s 100 semifinal, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce pulled out with an undisclosed injury, saying on social media “it is difficult for me to find the words to express my disappointment.”
Jackson, who won last year’s world championships in 21.41 — just 7-100ths of a second shy of Florence Griffith Joyner’s 36-year-old world record — and ran a pedestrian 22.29 at her country’s Olympic trials in June.
Then, in a race in Hungary on July 9, she pulled up before the finish of a 200, leaving her form in doubt with the Olympics less than a month away.
With files from Eddie Pells, The Associated Press
