Tokyo 2020 Olympics: Archer Atanu Das defeats two-time Olympic champion Oh-Jin Hyek to storm into pre-quarter finals

Indian archer Atanu Das progressed to the next round of the men's individual archery event after defeating 3rd ranked Oh-Jin Hyek of Korea in the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics at Yumenoshima Ranking Field on Thursday.

The 39-year-old Oh Jin Hyek, a former Olympic champion, faced a tough challenge from the Indian in the 1/32 eliminations round. Das showed amazing resilience and bounced back from being 2-4 to edge out the Korean by shooting a perfect 10 in the one-arrow shoot-off.

Das defeated Hyek 6-4 in the 2nd round and is now through to the Pre-quarter-finals. 

Oh, who had won the individual gold medal in London 2012 and was a member of the gold medal-winning team at the ongoing Tokyo Games, was also part of the bronze-wining team at the 2012 Olympics.

This is HUGE folks: #Archery : Atanu Das stuns former Olympic & World Champion Oh Jinhyek of South Korea 6-4 in 2nd round and is now through to Pre-QF.
Shoot-off decided the final result. #Tokyo2020withIndia_AllSports pic.twitter.com/soFH0H1AaQ

— India_AllSports (@India_AllSports) July 29, 2021

Earlier, he had defeated  Chinese Taipei's Yu-Cheng Dang 6-4 in the 1/64 eliminations round. Atanu Das took the lead in the match, helped by a 10 in his first arrow. Deng replied with an 8-9-9. 

A similar story unfolded in Set 2 but for Taipei's archer who leveled the match against Das. The next set went to Indian who regained the lead by shooting 9-10-9 to which Dang replied with a very poor 7 in the last arrow.

The fourth set went back and forth but it was Yu-Cheng who forced the match into the decider. In the final set, Chinese Taipei's Yu-Cheng Dang shot a 7 on his last arrow again which comfortably handed the match to Indian. 

On Wednesday, Indian archer Deepika Kumari defeated USA's Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez in the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The India archer defeated her opponent from the US 6-4 in the 1/16 eliminations round.

(Inputs from ANI)