Six Indians in knock-out round

There’s good news from Turkey. Six out of eight Indians have managed to make it to the elimination round in the individual recurve event...

There’s good news from Turkey. Six out of eight Indians have managed to make it to the elimination round in the individual recurve event of the World Cup Archery Tournament (Stage III) currently underway at Antalya in Turkey.

The Archery Association of India’s (AAI) tough selection and strong message after their poor showing in the first World Cup in Korea – in dropping top ace Jayanata Talukdar and not sending a compound team to Turkey as their performance was below par — paid dividends as three men and three women have made it to the elimination round of 64 in the six-day event. A total of 332 archers from 51 countries are participating.

Rahul Banerjee was the surprise package, as he upstaged his senior teammate Tarundeep Rai, securing 17th spot in the qualifying rounds with a score of 1317 from his 144 arrows. Rai, who was lying in 27th place with three arrows left, climbed two places with a score of 1308 while Harish Kerai scored 1300 to bag the 37th spot.

Story continues below this ad

Priyank, however, was unlucky, with big match nerves getting to him and he slipped from the 63rd spot with just three arrows remaining to 82nd in the final analysis with a score of 1260.

Dola Banerjee led the Indian charge in the women’s section, finishing as high as eighth with an individual score of 1330 despite the huge Korean dominance in the event. So much so, that there were four Koreans among the top five qualifiers here.

Eun Young Choi (1374) topped the list with Sung-Hyun Park close behind with 1368 points while Sung

Jun Lee (1352) and Tuk Young Lee (1346) bagged fourth and fifth spots, respectively. Japanese archer Nami Hayakawa was the odd one out in third spot with 1363 points.

Story continues below this ad

Joining Dola in the elimination round were Chekrovolu Swuro (1297) in 34th spot

and Punya Prabha (1268) in 61st spot. Bombayla Devi missed the cut when she finished 77th with an individual score of 1246.

In the team events, the Indian women were lucky to bag the 15th spot out of 16 places available in the elimination round. Here the combined scores of Dola, Chekrovolu and Bombayla was enough to carry them to the next round. In the men’s section there were no such issues as Banerjee, Rai and Priyank qualified as the 10th team with an accumulative score of 3885.