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Wayward archers bow out in quarterfinals
RIO DE JANEIRO: India’s greatest archery hope Deepika Kumari failed to deliver when it mattered the most as Russia won a closely-contested quarterfinal 5-4 via shoot-off
RIO DE JANEIRO: India’s greatest archery hope Deepika Kumari failed to deliver when it mattered the most as Russia won a closely-contested quarterfinal 5-4 via shoot-off in the women’s recurve archery competition of the Olympics, here on Sunday.
After the two teams were tied at 4-4, having won two sets each, the Russian trio of Tuiana Dashidorzhieva, Ksenia Perova and Inna Stepanova held its nerves in the shoot-off winning it by 25-23 margin.
Deepika, whose form has been the worst of three Indian archers in the fray, needed to shoot a perfect 10 in the final shot but the highlyrated Jharkhand archer could only manage an 8.
India lost the first set comprehensively 55-48 before Bombayla and Laxmirani hit perfect 10s in the second to equalise the scores at 53-52. India won the third set 53-50 mainly due to Stepanova getting one of her shots wrong.
Up 4-2, India could have clinched the issue in the fourth set when they needed a perfect score of 30 with their second set of arrows and equalise the Russia’s score of 55 and thereby win by a 5-3 margin having tied the score. Bombayla and Laxmirani hit the bull’s eye and Deepika needed to follow the suit. It was another moment of reckoning where she scored only 9.
WOMEN EKE OUT DRAW
The Indian women’s hockey team played as if they meant business, marking their return to the quadrennial games after a gap of 36 years by holding higher-ranked Japan to a 2-2 draw in their opening Pool B tie.
India, ranked 13th — three spots below Japan — were trailing by two goals at halftime, but Rani Rampal (31st) and Lilima Minz (40th) scored a goal each in the third and fourth quarters to secure points for their side. India conceded a goal when Emi Nishikori converted a PC with 10 seconds remaining in first quarter.
HEENA FAILS TO QUALIFY
There was more disappointment at the Olympic Shooting Ranges, where the country’s only hope in women’s 10m air pistol, Heena Sidhu, finished 14th with 380 points in the qualification round.
Heena had just 13 “inner 10s” in the four series of 10 shots each, totalling 380. She never really looked in contention for a place in the elimination round (final).