Olympic Update: Williamson, G.B. archers fall short of bronze

A pair of former Arizona State University student-athletes have begun competition at the Beijing Olympics with their respective nations, including Alison Williamson in archery and Shawn Redhage in basketball. Williamson, competing in her fifth Summer Games for Great Britain, shot in four events already while Redhage, making his Olympic debut, saw limited action in the Aussies’ opening game loss to Lithuania.

Williamson opened her fifth Olympiad on Saturday in the women’s individual ranking competition as the former Sun Devil All-American recorded a score of 651 points on the 70m target to position herself seventh overall. Sung-Hyun Park of Korea led the individual ranking round by tying the Olympic 72-arrow record at 673. In the individual competition that opens Tuesday, Williamson will face Pi-Hsiu Wei (Chinese Taipei) in the single-elimination event.

Then, on Sunday, Williamson joined with teammates Charlotte Burgess and Naomi Folkard in the team event, entering the competition as the second-seed. Following a first-round bye, Great Britain faced Japan in the quarterfinals and won the match, 201-196. In the semifinals, Great Britain fell to No. 3 China, 208-202, to send them to the bronze medal match. In the medal match, No. 5 France edged Great Britain, 203-201, to deny Williamson her second Olympic medal (individual bronze in 2004).

On the hardwood, Redhage and the Australian men faced Croatia in the opening round of Group A play, but fell, 97-82. Redhage played just over six minutes and contributed six points, one rebound and one steal. He went 2-for-5 from the field and 2-for-2 from the free throw line in the game. On Monday, Australia will face Argentina, who fell to Lithuania, 79-75.

So far in Group A, Russia, Croatia and Lithuania lead the standing with two points each following their opening round wins while Australia, Argentina and Iran each have one point following their opening losses. The Top 4 teams from each of the two groups (A & B) will advance to the quarterfinals for the single-elimination portion of the tournament.