Monday, September 7, 2009

World archery: Indian recurve men finish 3rd overall


Kolkata, September 4, 2009:

Indian recurve archers began their campaign in a stunning fashion finishing the team qualification round with a third place finish as Koreans set three world records on the third day of the 45th World archery championship at the Ulsan International Archery Field on Friday.

According to information reached here, the Indian trio of Mangal Singh Champia, Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee cobbled together a total of 4006 points to finish behind Korea (4122) and France (4026).

The Korean team’s total of 4122 is the new world record surpassing the earlier record of 4074 also set by Korea in 2003.

Individually, Champia ended seventh overall with a total of 1345. Talukdar was 13th with 1340 and Banerjee was 32nd with 1321 in a field consisted of 115 archers.

Top Korean archer Oh Jin Hyek set two more records on a dramatic day when a lot of big names found the going tough. His individual total of 1386 was better than 1379 set by his compatriot Oh Kyo-Moon in 2000. Jin Hyek also set the record in 90m distance with a total of 342 as against previous best of 337.

Defending world champion Im Dong-Hyun of Korea ended a poor fourth with 1365 and Olympic champion Viktor Ruban of Ukraine was even further at 11th with 1341. Olympic silver medallist Park Kyung Mo failed to make it and bronze medallist Bair Badenov of Russia was placed 12th.

In a field of 16 top teams, India would be seeded third thus they would avoid playing Korea before the final. If form played true, India and second seed France were expected to meet in the semifinals.

In the run-up to the world championship, the same three-member Indian men’s team won two gold and a silver medal in the first three World Cup meets. The trio also gave India the Asian championship team gold medal in 2007 after a gap of 18 years.
Source: Indian Archery Association press release

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