Rio de Janeiro: Amid nerve wrecking tension and high drama, luck deserted Indian women archers at the crucial moment as they crashed out of Olympic archery Team competition losing to Russian Federation 5-4 in a shootout after the two teams ended 4-4 at the end of regulation four sets in the quarter finals. They lost 4-5 to Russian Federation and crashed out of the game.
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Bombayla was the star performer for India today as they first overcame the challenge of Colombia to set up a team event quarterfinal against Russian Federation.
But the Indians made a valiant fightback as Rani Rampal (31st) and Lilima Minz (40th) scored a goal each in the third and fourth quarters to secure a point for their side.
In the men’s section, India’s lone competitor is Atanu Das, who had qualified for the final with an impressive overall position of 5th in the qualifying round.
Bombayla and Laxmirani hit the bull’s eye and Deepika needed to follow the suit. Deepika had to hit a bullseye to tie scores, but her arrow landed on the eight ring, bringing the curtains down on the Indians.
After her third consecutive Games appearance, Bombayla said, “This two-point loss in the shoot-off will continue to haunt us in future”.
Rio Olympics will be Laxmirani Majhi’s debut at the Games. Alexandra Longova made a superb start to the women’s individual archery event by scoring a ideal 10 while the Indian archer could only score 8.
After losing the first set 25-27, Laxmirani could only manage to shoot 26 (8, 9, 9) in reply to the Slovakian second set score of 28 (9, 9, 10). The Indians hit back immediately, narrowly winning the second set with a 53-52 margin. The victor of each set is awarded two points.
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When asked why the Indian archers were struggling again to find feet at the big stage despite doing so well in the recent times, Sachdeva said: “Deepika never hit seven during any of the recent practice sessions after coming to Rio nearly a month ago”. But the Russians held their nerve to pull level by clinching the fourth and final set 55-54 despite a strong fight back by India to take the issue into the shoot-off. “This can only be termed as psychological pressure than anything else”.
