The second Indian archer in the pre-quarterfinals of the women’s individual event at the Rio Olympics 2016, Bombayla Devi lost 6-2 to Alejandra Valencia of Mexico and crashed out of the Games. Bombayla after losing the first set, tried her best to come back in the match, winning the second set but that was not enough as the Mexican won the third and fourth set to win the match and qualify for the quarterfinals.
Bombayla, who defeated the world no.10 to qualify for the pre-quarters started the first set with a lowly 7 and the Mexican followed it up with a 9 to gain an advantage. The Indian then got a 9, in reply to which Valencia hit a 10. Though Bombayla scored a 10 on her last shot, the Mexican’s shot of 9 meant she took the set and gained a lead of 2 set points.
The Indian archer started the second set with a 9, in reply to which, the Mexican bagged an 8. Bombayla was only able to bag an 8 in her next shot but the Mexican bagged a 6 only, giving Bombayla a huge advantage and the Indian scored a 9 to virtually win the set and equal the scores at 2-2.
The third set started with Bombayla hitting a perfect 10 and the Mexican replied with a 10 for herself. Bombayla, not ready to give Valencia any sort of breathing space scored a 9 and the Mexican hit an 8 to give the Indian one-point lead. The Indian got an 8 in her next shot, leaving Valencia needing 10 points to win the set, which she did and took a 4-2 lead.
The match was now in its fourth set and Bombayla started with a surprising 6, to which the Mexican replied with a 9. The Indian scored a 9 on her next shot but the Mexican shot a 10 to take a huge lead and Bombayla shot an 8 on her next shot, only to make things very easy for her counterpart. Needing a shot of 5 to win the match, Valencia got a 6 and won the set along with the match.
Alejandra Valencia will now face the winner of the match between South Korea’s Misun Choi and Russia’s Inna Stepanova.
