Indian women archers go down to France

India lost to France 227-228 in the quarterfinals of the women's team archery in Athens.

Indian women belied medal expectations to bow out of the archery team event going down narrowly to France in the quarterfinal in the Olympic Games on Friday.

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The Indian troika of Dola Banerjee, Reena Kumari and Sumangala Sharma suffered a solitary point (227-228) loss to their French counterparts in the 27-arrow tie at the historic Panathinaiko stadium.

The Indians, who edged past Great Britain 230-228 in a closely contested pre-quarters earlier in the day, were done in by their poor display in the second series and the beginning of the third and last series against the French.

The Indian archers began well, establishing a two-point lead at the end of the opening series of nine arrows, to take a two-point lead, but then flip-flopped in the second series to trail the French team comprising Alexandra Fouace, Berangere Schuh and Aurore Trayan by four points.

The Indians, who had finished fifth in the ranking round, returned scores of 24, 28, 26 in the first series, but their points dropped to 24, 22 and 26 in the second.