Women falter at final step, India win 3 medals

Shanghai, May 1

The Indian women recurve archers had to be content with the silver medal while the men’s team and the mixed-pairs team won their third-place contests to end up with a bronze medal each in the Archery World Cup today.

The women’s recurve team — comprising Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi Laishram and Laxmirani Majhi — put up an inconsistent show in the final against Chinese Taipei, ranked three rungs below India (No. 4) in the world team rankings. The Indians shot one abysmal 5 in the crucial third set as they lost 2-6 in the final.

Later, the third-seeded men’s recurve team of Atanu Das, Jayanta Talukdar and Mangal Singh Champia brought the smiles back to the Indian camp, hammering ninth seeds Great Britain 6-0 to bag the bronze medal.

The mixed-pairs team of Deepika and Atanu ended India’s campaign on a high, getting the better of South Korea 5-4 in a nerve-wracking shoot-off to add another bronze to India’s haul.

Trailing 2-4, the top-seeded Indian pair bounced back to level 4-4 against the third seeds Areum Jo and Seong Cheol Park. This took the match to a shoot-off, which again was a tie (18-all) as both the teams scored 9-9 in the two sets. But since the Indian team hit closest to centre in their second 9, they edged out the Koreans for the medal.

Poor start

Earlier, the fourth-seeded Indian women’s team shot a poor 6 and 8 to start off on an ominous note. This enabled the seventh-seeded Chinese Taipei trio of Ya-Ting Tan, Chien-Ying Le and Shih-Chia Lin to take a 2-0 lead after the first set.

An improved show in the second set, which had two perfect 10s along with three 9s, ensured that the Indians levelled the match at 2-2 to stay alive in the contest. In the third set, the Indians shot three perfect 10s but a 5 and an 8 put paid to their hopes. The Chinese Taipei team shot four 10s to take a handsome 4-2 lead going into the decider.

Needing to win the fourth set to take the match into a shoot-off, the Indian trio shot a 7 along with four 9s and a solitary perfect 10. This turned out to be too little as their rivals hit four 10s and two 9s for a total of 58 out of a maximum 60 to win the set and the gold medal.

Later, Das, Talukdar and Champia put up a commanding show to blank the English trio of Patrick Huston, Larry Godfrey and Kieran Slater. The Indians blazed the range with five perfect 10s and one 8 to race to a 2-0 lead before wrapping up the issue in three sets with consistent shooting in the second and third sets. — PTI