Patna, August 8, 2009
Indian archery hit the depths of despair in the ongoing World Cup archery (Stage IV) at Shanghai on Saturday. After facing the ignominious early exit in the individual section of the recurve division the previous day, the Indian men’s and women’s teams made a quiet departure at the quarterfinal stage bowing to lower ranked opponents, according to information reached here on Saturday.
Having won two gold medals and a silver medal in the earlier three legs, the third-seeded men’s team moved into the quarterfinals with a facile victory over 14th ranked Ukraine 217-207. But the Indian trio of Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar allowed sixth seed Mexico to dominate the proceedings and win a semifinal berth with a 218-210 verdict.
Mexico, however, failed to go past Korea in the semifinals and will play Spain in the bronze medal play-off. Spain lost to France in the other semifinals.
The story in the women’s section also followed the same script except that the protagonists were different. The Indian threesome of Rimil Buriuly, Pratima Boro and Dola Banerjee, seeded third, made short work of 14th ranked Kazakhstan 213-200 but came a cropper against sixth-placed Italy in the quarterfinals 215-219.
Italy eventually lost to Russian Federation and Korea beat China in the semifinals. It will be Korea vs Russian Federation final and China vs Italy bronze medal play-off on Sunday.
India could have gained an unexpected bronze medal but the Indian duo of Rimil Buriuly and Jayanta Talukdar lost to France 138-140 in a closely fought third-place play-off match in the mixed team event. The Indian pair had to first shoot off with Russian team because of a tie in the qualification. Having won the contest and seeded fourth in the four-team event, India lost to Korea 143-153 and moved to the third-place play-off which did not prove lucky.
With this India's campaign in the four-leg World Cup series ended.
Source: Press release from Archery Association of India
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