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Athlete of the Week : Takaharu FURUKAWA (JPN)
Lausanne – 5 December 2012
The 28-year-old Takaharu FURUKAWA had the best season of his career in 2012 : he won the individual Olympic silver medal in London 2012 and went on to compete in the World Cup Final in Tokyo.
 Takaharu FURUKAWA made sensation at the London 2012 Olympic Games. As a teenager, he wanted to practice kyudo (Japanese traditional archery), but was only able to find an archery club who taught more mainstream. The Japanese archer competed in the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games, and qualified for his third Games in 2012. At Lord’s, FURUKAWA was among the most consistent athletes on the field. He qualified in 5th place, and met the Dutch archer Rick VAN DER VEN in the semifinal. FURUKAWA trailed 3-5, but was able to come back at 5-5 and force a one-arrow shoot-off, which he won 10-9. The 28-year-old Japanese was defeated in the gold medal final by Korea’s OH Jin Hyek. It was the first individual medal in an international competition for FURUKAWA. He was the first Japanese man to win an Olympic medal in archery since his famous compatriot Hiroshi YAMAMOTO won silver in Athens 2004.
Following his Olympic performance, FURUKAWA competed in the World Cup Final in his home country. In Tokyo, he had the difficult task of facing the archery legend IM Dong-Hyun (KOR) in the first round, and the competition ended there for him.
The Japanese archer, who works as a coach and trains at Kinki University in Osaka, achieved his best ever ranking this summer – 8th in the world. “Archery is a smaller sport in Japan and I hope my medal will inspire more people to take up the sport”, declared the three-time Olympian, who now has Rio 2016 in his sights.
Biography Extract :
World Archery Communication
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