Indian archers Deepika, Devi and Majhi lose nail-biting team quarterfinal to Russia.
The Indian women’s archery team lost a nail-biting quarterfinal via a shoot-off to Russia here on Sunday.
Both the teams were locked at 4-4 (48-55, 53-52, 53-50, 54-55) after the four sets, with Indian girls Deepika Kumari, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Laxmirani Majhi matching the Russians.
It all came down to a one-minute shoot-off. Russia started with a perfect 10, while Bombayla Devi hit a 7. Russia then gave India hope by hitting only a 6 and Majhi kept India in the hunt with an 8. But in the last shot, Russia hit a 9 whereas Deepika could manage only 8 as Russia edged past India 25-23 to win it 5-4 overall.
Earlier, India reached the quarters with a 205-197 victory over Colombia, after Deepika gave some scary moments at the Olympic Shooting Centre.
However, it was not too late before Deepika managed to rectify the problem in her bow and came back on track to help her teammates Bombayla Devi and Majhi.
It was Devi who began the campaign for India with an eight-arrow. Kumari and Majhi began with a nine-arrow each to take India to 26 points. Colombia had a 10-pointer in the first game to garner 27 points.
It was then that Devi hit a 10-pointer while Majhi responded with a nine. However, Kumari had a poor shot to end up with a seven-arrow.
In the second game, Colombia began well in the first game of the second set with 24 points. For India, Devi and Majhi both shot nine before Kumari came back with only seven. India led 25-24 in the first game of the second set before a solid comeback from opponents in second game. Shots of 8, 9, 9 took them to 50. All eyes were on India as Devi shot 9 and Majhi, 8. But Kumari once again shot seven to hand over the game to Colombia 50-49.
At this time, Kumari realised that she had a problem with her arrow sighter. As she rectified this issue, the equations changed instantly as India’s most renowned archer finally shot a 10 to give her country a great start in the first game of the third set with 26 points.
Colombia responded with a 10, 9, 9 game as they win the first game 28-26.
In the third set, Devi shot 9, Majhi 7 while Kumari came up with a fine 10-pointer.
Colombia led with two points after the first rotation of third set. Colombian archer shot a six-pointer in the third set while her teammates followed up with fine shots but finally the South American nation tied India with a score of 52-52 after judges took a close look at the Colombian archer’s last shot, initially giving her nine points.
India came back hard in the final set with four 9s to total 52 before Colombia panicked under pressure to manage only 44, giving India a passage into the last eight.
When asked why the Indian archers were struggling again to find feet at the big stage despite doing so well in the recent times, Sachdeva said: “Deepika never hit seven during any of the recent practice sessions after coming to Rio almost a month ago. She not only hit seven but even missed target altogether in last two days. This can only be termed as psychological pressure than anything else.”
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