British archers out
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ByEurosport
Updated 28/07/2012 at 10:05 GMT
Great Britain’s Larry Godfrey bemoaned his team’s sluggish start as the men’s archers fell to defeat against Ukraine at the first hurdle of the London 2012 knockout stages at Lord's.
Britain's Larry Godfrey takes aim during the men's archery team eliminations at the Lords Cricket Ground during the London 2012 Olympics
Image credit: Reuters
Godfrey lined up alongside Simon Terry and Alan Wills but couldn’t stop Team GB falling to a 223-212 loss against the ninth seeds.
Just two points separated the teams from yesterday’s ranking round but Ukraine, and defending Olympic champion Viktor Ruban, proved too strong for the home competitors.
“We were slow to adjust and they came out and smashed it straight away,” said Godfrey, whose attention will now turn to the individual competition in his third Games.
“223 is a good score and 212 is way below our usual standard, we'll have to have a chat to see what went wrong.”
The Brits started strongly with three nines but Ukraine, with Ruban joined by Dmytro Hrachov and Markiyan Ivashko, took the early lead and maintained their momentum throughout.
The home side shot five maximums from their 24 attempts but couldn’t match the strong Ukrainians, who hit 11 before Hracho secured the victory with Ukraine’s penultimate arrow.
Terry, who has two bronze medals from Barcelona 1992, believes his side were slow to adjust to their high arrows and expressed his regret at some of his personal scores.
“I was quite relaxed then I made that little error by shooting the seven and I started to feel a bit of pressure and some nerves," he said.
“I just need to transform my practice form into the competition.”
The Ukrainians now face a quarter final tie against defending champions and competition favourites South Korea and new world record holder Im Dong-Hyun.
The British archers will turn their attentions to the individual competition on Monday as they look to add to the nine medals won by Team GB in Olympic history.
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