India recurve teams lose in final of Asian GP archery

Kolkata, February 19, 2012: For a change, the Indian compound archers outshine their recurve counterparts in an international archery championship.

The men’s compound team (Rajat Chauhan, Ritul Chatterjee and Ch. Jignas) made a clean sweep by winning the men’s team final defeating Hong Kong by 224-211 points. Earlier, India’s Jignas won the individual and Rajat and Jhano Hansdah took the mixed team gold medals. India won against Korea 236-224 in the semifinals, according to information received here.

The compound women’s team (Jhano Hansdah, Gagandeep Kaur and Manjudha Soy) lost to the eventual winner Thailand in the semifinals at 217-221. The Indians went on to win the bronze medal out-shooting Hong Kong at 227-215.

India’s full strength recurve teams came a cropper in the final of the men’s and women’s team events.

Deepika Kumari, Chekrovolu Swuro and L. Bombayla Devi, who will be representing India in the women’s recurve event at the London Olympics, suffered a defeat at the hands of China by 211-213 points. Incidentally, this Chinese team is not the National side but a regional team from Shanghai!
Japan took the bronze medal getting the better of France at 210-202 in the third place play-off.

The Indians beat Japan in the semifinals at 217-213 while China outplayed France at 217-209.

The new-look Indian men’s recurve side, comprising Jayanta Talukdar, Mangal Singh Champia and Thupuvoyi Swuro, won easily against Japan in the semifinals at 222-219 but found France a tough team to down in the final. The Indian lost 217-218. Korea took the bronze medal beating Japan 223-215.  
   
India ended the championship on a high making a rich haul of four gold, five silver and two bronze medals to rank No. 1 in the medal tally.

The compound team contributed three gold medals. The fourth gold was won by the mixed recurve team.

Ch. Jignas and Rajat Chauhan became the two Indians to win two gold medals in this championship. Jignas added the team gold to the individual he won earlier while Rajat added his team gold to the mixed team gold he had won on Saturday.

A Press release