Sunday, July 29, 2012

Indian men archers disappoint on the opening day


London, July 27, 2012: Indian archery hit a new low on the opening day of the 30th Olympic Games archery competition at Lord’s when the men’s team of Rahul Banerjee, Tarundeep Rai and Jayanta Talukdar, finished a shocking 12 out of 12 teams in the ranking round held in the morning.

On a day when the defending champion Korea stamped its class by establishing two world records and Olympic records for the team and individual totals, the three Indians bite the dust with a shocking display to plunge India’s campaign into disarray.

India, ranked third in world, totalled a pathetic 1969 points that gave it only the last spot. The top four finishers, Korea, France, China and the US, will all get a bye into the quarterfinals. India will be pitted against fifth-ranked Japan in the pre-quarterfinals which will be a repeat of the Ogden Olympic qualifying final match where India lost to Japan.

Individually, Rai was the best placed Indian at 31st spot with a total of 664. Banerjee was 46th with 655 and Talukdar was 53rd with 650. In the elimination round, Rai will play 34th ranked Juan Carlos Stevens of Cuba in the first round while Banerjee will take on 19th ranked Jantsan Gantugs of Mongolia. Talukdar has the toughest draw meeting 12th ranked Jacob Wukie of the US.

The Korean trio of Im Dong Hyun, Kim Bubmin and Oh Jin Hyek totalled 2087 points to established a new world record and Olympic record. The previous world record was 2069 by Korea at Antalya World Cup earlier this year and the Olympic record stood at 2031 by Korea set at Atlanta in 1996.

Im Dong Hyun’s individual score of 699 bettered his own world record of 696 set at Antalya earlier this year and the Olympic record stood at 684 points set by Michele Frangilli of Italy in 1996.

World No. 1 archer American Brady Ellison of the US finished 10th with a score of 676.

The men’s team elimination and the final will be gone through on Saturday with the first medal being awarded in this discipline.

Indian Archery Association Press release

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