Indian women archery team of Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi and Laxmirani Majhi were up against World no.2 Russia in the quarter-final of the women’s team event at the Rio Olympics 2016. After a hard-fought match, the Indian team lost in the tie breaker and bowed out of the event.
In the pre-quarterfinals, the Indians defeated the Colombian team 5-3 to gain the opportunity of facing Russia.
The Russian team of Tuiana Dashidorzhieva, Ksenia Perova and Inna Stepanova started strongly with 28 (9, 9, 10) points in the first series of shots. Bombayla, in return, shot a 9 and Laxmirani followed up with another 9 and Deepika shot a perfect 10. In the second series, the Russians accumulated 27 points with all the three shots fetching 9 points.
Bombayla and Laxmirani, however, managed just 7s and Deepika shot a 6 as the Indian team lost the first set.
In the second set, the Indian archers shot first with Bombayla getting a 9, Laxmirani getting 8 and Deepika getting 7, taking the team’s total to 24. Russia, on the other hand shot a series of 10, 8 and 9 to get to 27.
Bombayla came back in the second series with a 10 and Laxmirani followed up with another 10, and Deepika got a 9 to take India’s total to 53. Russia started with a 7, followed up with a 8 and 10. However, that was not enough as they fell a point short of the Indians and the scores were tied at 2-2.
The Russians started the third set with a 10, 9 and 8 in the first series to get a total of 27. Bombayla then shot 9, but Laxmirani faltered and got a 6 and Deepika followed it up with a 9. The three-point deficit might have been hard to overcome but the Russians made things easy for Indians as they shot 8, 6 and 9 to take their total to 50.
Bombayla came back with a 10, Laxmirani followed up with a 9 and Deepika scored a perfect 10 to win the set and gain a 4-2 advantage.
The fourth set was a do-or-die one for the Russians, who shot two 9s and a 10 to get their score to 28. Bombayla then shot an 8, Laxmirani got a 7 and Deepika followed it up with a 9 to accumulate 24 points. The Russians started the second series with a 9 and followed it up with a 10 and 8 to take their total to 55, which the Indians couldn’t have reached even if they had shot 10 each.
However, Bombayla and Laxmirani scored 10s and Deepika got a 9 and the match went to a tie-breaker.
In a tie-breaker, each player from both the teams shoots an arrow each and the team with the higher score wins. If the scores are still tied, then whose arrow lands closest to the bulls-eye wins the match. If the first arrows are at the same distance, then the second ones are compared and then the third.
Russia started with a 10 and Bombayla started with a 7. The second Russian archer got just 6 and Laxmirani failed to capitalise and managed an 8. The third Russian archer got a 9, and Deepika had to hit the bullseye to win the match. However, she managed to get only 8 and India lost the tie-breaker 23-25.
The Russian will now face the Italian team in the semi-final of the event.
