After Olympics berth, Indian women shoot silver medal

Copenhagen, August 2

The Indian women’s recurve team squandered a two-set lead and went down to top seed Russia in the shoot-off to bag a silver medal at the World Archery Championships here today.

The 10th seeded Indian trio of Deepika Kumari, Laxmirani Majhi and Rimil Buruily got off to a brilliant start. They won the first two sets, but failed to sustain the momentum and lost the next two. In the shoot-off, the Indians fought hard before going down 28-27.

India thus picked their second silver after archer Rajat Chauhan opened the account with a historic individual medal on Saturday. This is India’s best ever show at the World Archery Championships. Majhi was in contention for a bronze medal in the individual category, but she ended up fourth.

Having already grabbed an Olympics quota place, the Indian eves kept shuffling their order with Deepika, the former world No. 1, either shooting first or last.

The trio of Tuyana Dashidorzhieva, Ksenia Perova and Inna Stepanova had a series of 9s against India’s three perfect 10s and one closest to the centre (X) to trail 54-56 in the first set. The Indians wrapped up the second set too, but failed to clinch the third as Majhi and Buruily shot seven each. Buruily bounced back with a perfect 10; Deepika, shooting last, also hit the bull’s eye but it still wasn’t good enough to make up for the lapse in the first round of the set.

Under pressure in the fourth set, Deepika started the proceedings with a 9. Majhi and Buruily, however, let her down, shooting a poor 7 and 6, respectively. Deepika once again shot a perfect 10 in the second round but the Russians made a spirited comeback to level the score 4-4 and take the summit clash to the shoot-off.

In the shoot-off, Dashidorzhieva started with a perfect 10, matched by Majhi. Perova shot 9, but Buruily faltered again and shot an 8, putting pressure on Deepika again.

Required to score a perfect 10 after Stepanova’s 9, Deepika shot well but missed the bull’s eye narrowly with a 9. As a result, the India women had to be content with a silver medal. This was Deepika’s second silver at the World Archery Championship. She had won a silver with Chekrovolu Swuro and Laishram Bombayla Devi in 2011 too. — TNS/Agencies,