Archery World Cup: Indian men’s recurve team fail to qualify for Rio
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The Indian men’s archery team failed to make the cut for the Olympics after losing to Malaysia in a shoot-off in the quarter-final of the Olympic qualifying tournament on Thursday. The top-seeded side lost 4-5 (27-28)to Malaysia in Antalya, after what seemed like a promising start to the tournament.
The Indian side, comprising Mangal Singh Champia, Atanu Das, and Jayanta Talukdar, had emphatically come back from 0-4 down against Turkey in the first round, to defeat the hosts 5-4(26-24). In the quarter-final, they failed to capitalize on a 4-2 lead at one stage and allowed Malaysia to draw level. The Malaysians, then, held their nerve in the shoot-off to reach the semi-finals. After losing their semi-final, they beat Germany 6-2 in the bronze medal match to claim a team spot in the 2016 Olympics.
In the archery World Cup, being held simultaneously, Atanu Das will compete in the bronze medal match of the men’s recurve competition after losing to Bonchan Ku of South Korea 0-6. He will meet Ku’s compatriot Woojin Kim in the bronze medal match..
The recurve and compound women teams are also in the hunt for a medal after they reached the bronze medal play-offs at the World Cup. The compound women’s trio of Lily Chanu Paonam, Divya Dhayal, and Purvasha Shende beat top seeds Germany by six points in the quarter-final before losing to Russia in the last four. They will now face Indonesia for the bronze medal.
The recurve team of Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi Laishram, and Laxmirani Majhi also lost their semi-final match against Russia 1-5 and will compete against Italy on Sunday for the bronze.
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