It was an average day for India at the Yamuna Sports Complex with two men and an equal number of women archers making it to the quarterfinals of the individual recurve competition on Tuesday.
Deepika Kumari and Dola Banerjee, who finished among the top two in Monday's ranking round, were in the last eight. Among men, Rahul Banerjee and Jayanta Talukdar, who had dominated the ranking round, entered the quarterfinals.
The two Indians to be shown the door were former national champion L. Bombayla Devi among women and 2010 SAF Games gold medallist Tarundeep Rai among men. Both had had an unimpressive ranking round on Monday and the poor form continued as they lost in the pre-quarter-finals.
Bombayla lost to Australia's Alexandra Feeney 2-4 (48-51, 52-51, 50-53) while Rai was blanked by Malaysian Chu Sian Cheng 0-4 (53-58, 52-55).
Bombayla's loss will not hurt the Indians as after the ranking round, Bombayla would have met Deepika in the quarters and a medal still looms large. Rai's meek surrender to Cheng did hurt.
The draw that followed the ranking round in recurve was such that all three could have advanced to the semifinals and the one who had lost would have played the bronze medal play-off. National coach, Limba Ram, however, thought the duo's poor run of form would not affect India in the team championships.
{{/usCountry}}The draw that followed the ranking round in recurve was such that all three could have advanced to the semifinals and the one who had lost would have played the bronze medal play-off. National coach, Limba Ram, however, thought the duo's poor run of form would not affect India in the team championships.
{{/usCountry}}"They are a bit down at the moment but when they are shooting in team events they are not doing very badly,".
Compound archers lose
The second session started on a bleak note for India. All the three women compound archers fell by the wayside.
Veterans Jhanu Hansda and Bheigyabati Chanu lost in the first elimination round. Promising youngster Gagandeep Kaur raised hopes when she upset world No. 8 and 2009 World Championships silver medallist Jorina Coetzee in the first round. Gagandeep beat the South African youngster 5-1 (55-55, 58-54, 55-54). The Punjab archer, however, lost in the pre-quarter finals to the event's second-ranked archer Nicky Hunt of England 2-4 (56-57, 59-56, 56-60).
In the men's event, C. Srither and Ritul Chatterjee both lost in the first round and C.H. Jignas lost in the pre-quarter-finals ending India's chances of an individual medal in compound bow section.