The Indian women’s archery team progressed to the quarter-finals by edging out Colombia 5-3 as shooters continued with disappointing run at the Rio Olympics today.
The Indian trio of Laishram Bombayla Devi, Laxmirani Majhi and Deepika Kumari made the quarters of the recurve event.
Indian archery team, who sealed their maiden entry into the quarter-finals, will face Russia later at 11.45pm (IST).
This was the first time that the women archers had advanced to round two after their poor display in London four years ago when Denmark ousted them in round one.
Indian team clinched the first set with a close 52-51 margin. Bombayla Devi gave India good start with a 10-pointer in the first set. But the team lost the second set 49-50 as Indian archers failed to score 26 points to win the second set.
India fought back in the third set and tied with Colombia with 52-52.
In the fourth and final set, Colombian archer succumbed under pressure as she came up with a bizarre three-point shot to hand India 52-44 victory and a place in the quarter-finals.
However, the Indian shooters unimpressive run continued unabated with Heena crashing out of the womens 10m air pistol qualification round by finishing way behind the leaders in the 14th position out of 44 competitors.
Heena will now try to make amends when she competes in the 25m pistol event, scheduled to be held on August 9. On day one of competitions yesterday, the duo of Apurvi Chandela and Ayonika Paul failed to qualify in the womens 10m air rifle event.
Medal prospect Jitu Rai could make the final in the 10m air pistol but exited by finishing eighth in the summit round. Gurpreet Singh, the other shooter in fray, ended a distant 20th in a field of 46.
(With PTI inputs)
