Deepika Kumari was up against world no.2 Tan Ya-Ting of the Chinese Taipei in the pre-quarterfinals of the women’s individual event at the Rio Olympics 2016. The Jharkhand-born archer failed to impose herself on the Taipei archer and lost the match 6-0.
The 22-year-old Indian archer finds it very hard to shoot properly in windy condition and that probably hurt her as she was able to score just one perfect 10 in comparison to Tan’s six 10s over the course of three sets.
The Taipei archer started with a perfect 10 on a windy day and Deepika followed it up with a 9. Tan scored a 9 on her second shot and Deepika only bagged an 8, in reply to which the Taipei archer bagged another 9 to virtually seal the set. Though Deepika struck a 10 in her last shot, Tan went on to win the set 28-27 and take a 2-0 lead.
One set down, Deepika started the next set with an 8, whereas Tan shot a 9 to take one point lead. The Indian then bagged a 9, in reply to which the Taipei archer scored a 10 and took a 2-point lead. The Indian scored a 9, but Tan followed it up with a 10 for herself and took the second set as well, extending her lead to 4-0.
Deepika again shot first in the third set and scored a 9, whereas Tan got a perfect 10 to put Deepika under pressure. The Indian got another 9, and Tan scored yet another 10 to maintain her lead. Deepika shot the third 9 of the set and Tan followed it up with a 10 to take the set and the match with it.
With the loss, Deepika’s journey at the Rio Olympics is over and the Indian archery fans now have all their hopes pinned on Bombayla Devi and Atanu Das.
