Express & Star

Rio Olympics: Kidderminster archer Naomi Folkard has best ever chance of medal

Kidderminster archer Naomi Folkard believes if her confidence levels are anything to go by, Rio 2016 presents her best ever chance of an Olympic medal after an encouraging performance in the ranking round.

Published

The 32-year-old, appearing at her fourth consecutive Olympics, shot a score of 639 to rank her 23rd ahead of the round of 64, which gets underway on Monday.

A fantastic first 36 arrows saw Folkard rank among the top eight, although a more troubling wind throughout the second half saw that she couldn't maintain such a high standard.

But with the weekend off to iron out any issues Folkard is confident that she can produce some of most impressive archery in the knockout rounds.

"I judged the wind in the first half much better than the second half – my shots were a lot better in the first half," she said.

"I was down the far end so it was quite quiet – there were a few photographers around but they weren't distracting at all, which was nice.

"It was difficult to judge the wind, there weren't any flags in helpful positions. I had a couple of moments where I aimed to the right when I should have aimed to the left, so I drifted into the blue instead of the gold.

"Generally though I was shooting really well. My shots were smooth and strong and I'm really looking forward to the next matches."

With her best individual performance at an Olympics still standing as reaching the round of 16 at Athens 2004, Folkard will be keen to progress through the rounds in Rio.

The closest she has come to an Olympic medal to date was in Beijing when Team GB lost the bronze medal match to France.

And despite battling some mental demons before it was time to perform on Friday, she insists just like in Beijing her confidence levels are telling her a medal is an attainable goal when she lines up in the first knockout round against Indonesia's Ika Rochmawati on Tuesday.

"I've got to take that first half, remember my shots and take confidence from that," she added.

"I was told I was in the top eight for the first half, which is really good, so if I can take that forward to the matches it will be good.

"Before Beijing I was really confident and I shot really well. I'm on a similar path to that, I just need to keep the good shots going."

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.