India win one silver, two bronze in Archery World Cup

Indian women’s team settled for the silver after losing to Chinese Taipei in the final, while men’s trio and mixed pair won their respective bronze playoffs in the first stage of Archery World Cup at the Yuanshen Stadium here on Sunday.

Women’s team comprising Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi Laishram and Laxmirani Majhi put up an inconsistent show that included an abysmal five in the crucial third set, to lose to the lower-ranked Chinese Taipei 2-6 in the recurve team final.

Later, the third seeded Indian men’s recurve team of Atanu Das, Jayanta Talukdar and Mangal Singh Champia brought smiles back to the Indian camp, hammering ninth seed British team 6-0 to bag the bronze medal.

The mixed pair of Deepika and Atanu ended India’s campaign on a high, getting the better of much fancied Koreans 5-4 in a nerve-wracking shoot-off to end with another bronze.

Trailing 2-4, the top seeded Indian pair bounced back to level 4-4 against the third seed Areum Jo and Seong Cheol Park to take the match to the shoot-off, which again was a tie (18-all) as both the teams scored 9-9.

But since the Indian team was closest to centre in their second 9, it helped in edging out the Koreans.

Earlier, the fourth seeded Indian women’s team shot a poor six and eight to start off on an ominous note, even as the seventh seeded Chinese Taipei trio of Ya-Ting Tan, Chien-Ying Le and Shih-Chia Lin won by four points to take a 2-0 lead in the first set.

An improved show in the second, which had two perfect 10s along with three 9s ensured that the Indians stayed alive to win by two points and level 2-2.

Next up, the Indians shot three perfect 10s but a five and eight jeopardised their chance of a comeback in the crucial third set with Chinese Taipei team shooting four 10s for a handsome 4-2 lead going into the decider.