Olympics 2012: India finishes last in archery rankings round

It was a disappointing start to the proceedings for India at the Olympics with the men's archery team finishing bottom of the heap at 12th in the ranking round held at the Lord's Cricket Ground in London on Friday.

The trio of Jayanta Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai and Rahul Banerjee combined for a score of 1969 on a day when defending champions Korea shattered the team world record with a tally of 2087 to lead the rankings.

Individually, Tarundeep Rai was the best-placed Indian at 31st with 664 points from 72 shots. Banerjee was at 46th with 655 points, followed by Talukdar at 53rd with 650 points.

For Korea, Dong Hyun Im set an individual world record with a score of 699/720. France finished a distant second in the raking round with a score of 2021.

After the ranking round, the 12 teams will shoot in a head-to-head elimination format.

Each team will shoot four sets of six arrows (two arrows per archer).

The team with the highest total will win the match, with winning teams progressing through the draw until only the finalists remain.

If two teams are tied, a three-arrow shoot-off is held. If this doesn't separate them, the team closest to the centre of the target emerges the winner.

The two winning teams from the respective semi-final matches compete in the gold-medal match and the remaining teams compete in the bronze-medal match.