UPDATE 2 - Turkey wins 1st-ever Olympic medal in archery

UPDATES WITH QUOTES FROM METE GAZOZ AND JAPANESE EMBASSY IN ANKARA, CHANGES IN HEADLINE, DECK, BODY

By Selcuk Bugra Gokalp

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish archer Mete Gazoz won a gold in men's individual archery final at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, bringing his country its first-ever Olympic medal in archery on Saturday.

Facing world No. 7 Italian archer Mauro Nespoli in the final, the 22-year-old won the match 6-4 and bagged the gold medal.

He thanked his family, trainer, federation and others for the achievement. "Today I'm happy to achieve the Olympic medal I have dreamed of for years," he said on Twitter.

The Japanese embassy in Turkey also celebrated Gazoz and Japanese archer Takaharu Furukawa's win.

"Congratulations to Mete Gazoz, who competed in #archery, for the gold medal he won! I am very happy that he won the first gold medal in Japan," the embassy quoted the ambassador as saying.

"Also, congratulations to FURUKAWA Takaharu who won the bronze medal. It was a very impressive competition."

Earlier, the Turkish archer faced Furukawa, and won the semifinal match 7-3 to reach the final.

World No. 4 Gazoz has two individual Archery World Cup championships, one gold medal in recurve man at Mediterranean Games and two gold medals in individual category at the European Youth Championships.