Rio Olympic dreams for the Indian men’s recurve team were crushed as the trio of Atanu Das, Jayanta Talukdar and Mangal Singh Champia went down to Malaysia in a shoot-off in the quarter-finals of the team qualifier at Antalya on Thursday.
India, who were the top seeds, started with a tough win over 16th seed Turkey in the pre-quarter-finals. After trailing behind 0-4 initially, they regrouped to take the next two sets and tie the contest.
The Indians won the shoot-off 26-24 to make it through to the last-eight.
Their next assignment too proved to be a difficult one as the Malaysian team made it a close affair and stretched the match to a tie-break. But it was there that India’s luck ran out as they succumbed to a narrow 4-5 (27-28) defeat.
India needed to finish inside the top 3 for an Olympic berth. The Indian men will have to remain content with the single individual quota that they secured at the World Championships in July last year. A trial will now he held back home to decide who will represent India at Rio.
Atanu Das in WC bronze medal play-off
24-year-old Atanu Das might have failed in his attempt to help the Indian team get an Olympic quota but he did very well in individual competition at the simultaneously held Archery World Cup Stage 3.
Also Read: Archery World Cup: Indian women’s teams in bronze medal play-off
The fourth-seeded Bengal archer, who had two byes, was in impeccable form in his first three knock-out rounds today but his run was cut short 0-6 by the top-seeded Korean Ku Bonchan in the semi-finals. Das will now square off against the second-seeded Korean Kim Woojin in the bronze medal contest on Sunday.
Jayanta Talukdar too lost to the top seed in the pre-quarter-finals.
On the women’s side, none could reach that far. Former World No. 1 Deepika Kumari was the best performer who got knocked out in the pre-quarter-finals. Deepika faced the former World Championship team gold medallist Guendalina Sartori of Italy, who beat her 6-4.
Compound archers disappoint
India’s star compound archer Abhishek Verma had a tough proposition as he was up against the top seed Stephan Hansen. Verma did put up a strong challenge but eventually succumbed to a 147-148 loss in the third round. Chinna Rahju Srither too bowed out in the same round.
In the women’s section, Incheon Asian Games team bronze medallist Purvasha Sudhir Shende made it through to the pre-quarter-finals where she lost to the 48th seeded Laure De Matos, 138-144. Her compatriot Lily Chanu Paonam went down to the seventh seed Inge Van Caspel at the same stage of the competition.
