Archery: Four things working for Deepika Kumari and Bombayla Devi in Rio 2016

Deepika Kumari and Laishram Bombayla Devi seems to have stepped up their game in the individual event, looking to make ammends after a poor outing in the team competition at the Rio Olympics.

Deepika Kumari and Laishram Bombayla Devi seems to have stepped up their game in the individual event, looking to make ammends after a poor outing in the team competition at the Rio Olympics.

India's Deepika Kumari shoots during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games women's competition. (AFP Photo)

The archers were scoring high against their opponents in round of 64 and the round of 32 on Wednesday, consistently hitting the middle rings of the target.

Bombayla Devi, who finished 24th in the initial ranking round, dominated proceedings to beat Laurence Baldauff in of Austria 6-2 in the round of 64 before beating Chinese Taipei’s Lin Shih-Chia 6-2 in the round of 64. Deepika defeated Italy’s Sartori Guendalina 6-2 in the round of 32, where she had reached after beating Kristine Esebua of Georgia 6-4 in the previous round.

Bombayla Devi Laishram releases her arrow during an elimination round of the individual archery competition.

While subjective explanations such as “high motivation levels” are valid to some extend, there are a few basic things that are working in favour of the archers now, when compared to their team outing.

Deepika as well as other archers were complaining about the strong cross winds at the venue that was hampering their shots. It is evident from Wednesday’s performances that the Indian archers now have adapted to the conditions. However, it works the same for their opponents too.

Team dynamics:

In archery team competitions, three archers from a country take turns to shoot. If one of the archers falter then that puts added pressure on the other two, resulting in a domino effect of sorts. With the Indian team, the archer who faltered was Deepika, who is the star. In the individual segment, such a pressure is not present and archers go about their business, remain in their own personal mindspace.

Positivity

The momentum began with Atanu Das performing well in the men’s individual segment. That has clearly acted as a confidence booster for Deepika and Bombayla Devi.

Shot rush

In the individual event, both Deepika and Bombayla Devi has been taking that extra bit of time before releasing the arrow. Experts say that’s helping them cope better with the problems created by the wind. When it’s windy the release time has to be perfect and the Indians were ensuring that on Wednesday