Archer Deepika Kumari expressed bewilderment after a dismal show during the women’s team event where the Indian team finished seventh in the qualification round of the Rio Olympics Games.
Deepika managed 640 out of 720 which was good enough for a 20th position while experienced Bombayla Devi Laishram shot 638 to finish 24th and Laxmirani Majhi finished 43rd with 614 points.
“Nothing was wrong apart from the wind. It was difficult to follow and understand. I shot the arrow and it was a miss. Of course [that] is not what I expected, but there’s nothing I can do about it now,” Deepika said after the event.
They will open their campaign against Colombia who were ranked 10th. If they manage to advance, India may face second-ranked Russia and third-ranked China in their prospective quarters and semifinal clashes.
The double Commonwealth Games gold medallist led by one point after 30 arrows only to slip in the sixth end when she shot a poor 49 with scores of 9,9,8,8,8,7. The worst happened in the last arrow of the seventh end when she drew a blank by completely missing the target.
In the individual round, Deepika will face Kristine Esebua of Georgia (rank 45), while Bombayla will take on Laurence Baldauff of Austria (rank 41) and Laxmirani’s first round challenger would be Alexandra Longova of Slovakia.
Atanu Das showed fine composure and skill to bounce back from a poor start in his maiden Olympics to finish fifth in the qualification round as archery got underway at Brazil’s historic Samba street here today.
Lying a lowly 10th after first 36 arrows, the 24-year-old Kolkata lad turned it around in style in the final set of 36 arrows by shooting 23 perfect 10s including 10 closest to the centre to finish fifth with 683 out of the possible 720. Das is the lone male member in the Indian archery team and compete only in the individual section as the men’s team had failed to qualify from the World Championship.
Leading the qualification round was two-time World champion Kim Woo-jin who shot 700, for a world record on the opening day of the XXXI Olympiad. Das had troubled Woo-jin in the World Cup Stage 3 in Antalya earlier in June where he led the Korean heavyweight 4-0 before losing 5-6 for the individual bronze medal.
But his impressive finish meant that Das, who will begin his elimination round against lowly 60th ranked Jitbahadur Muktan of Nepal, will avoid the top-seed Woo-jin unless he reaches the summit-clash. Das will get an easy draw till the quarterfinals and his probable semi-final opponent may be the 4th ranked Dutch man Sjef van den Berg who won the World Cup individual gold in Shanghai.