Paris: The Indian men’s archery team of Tarundeep Rai, Dhiraj Bommadevara and Pravin Jadhav lost to Turkiye 2-6 in the quarterfinals and was knocked out of the Paris Olympics on Monday. Bommadevara and veteran Rai were the weakest links of the Indian team as Jadhav scored the most points in the quarterfinal clash. India lost the opening two sets as the young Turkish trio came out all guns blazing.
However, the Indians made a comeback in the third set and won 55-54 before going down miserably in the next set. Turkiye comfortably sealed the match with a scoreline of 57-53, 55-52, 54-55, 58-54.
Bommadevara shot a seven in the First End and made up for it with a 10 while Rai could manage only nine and eight in two rounds. Türkiye had four arrows in the 10-point zone while the Indians had only two. In the second set, Rai shot two eights while Jadhav had a 10 and a nine while Bommadevara shot a eight and nine.
They did better in the third set with two 10s, three 9s and one eight while Türkiye’s Berkim Tumer shot a seven. In the fourth set, Bommadevara shot a seven, which ended India’s hopes.
On Sunday, the Indian women’s archery team of Ankita Bhakat, Bhajan Kaur and Deepika Kumari lost to the Netherlands in the quarterfinal and ended their campaign.
The Indian team lost 51-52, 49-54, 48-53 to the Dutch team after putting up a dismal show. Ankita and Deepika failed to cope with the pressure as they were unable to get their shots right from the start and the team fell behind 51-52 in the opening set.
Things did not change in the second as well as they went down in the set after two six-point shots from Ankita and Deepika to finish 54-49 and were trailing 0-4 to the Dutch team.
Ankita’s costly four-point error in the third set added further misery to and ended India’s hopes of progressing to the semifinals as the Netherlands, seeded 12th compared to India’s fourth, won the match 6-0.
The Indian women’s team had earned a direct entry into the quarterfinals after finishing fourth in the qualification.
–IANS