India's recurve archers had a nightmarish qualification round in the women's event as they slipped out of top-30 in the qualifying round.
The Indian women's archery team confirmed their first medal after the troika of Ankita Bhakat, Deepika Kumari, and Simranjeet Kaur beat Britain, Ukraine, and Turkey on their way to the finals of the ongoing World Cup Stage 3 on Thursday.
India's recurve archers had a nightmarish qualification round in the women's event as they slipped out of top-30 in the qualifying round. They will be against Chinese Taipei on Sunday. The Indian women's recurve trio started by eliminating fourth-seed Ukraine 5-1 (57-53 57-54 55-55).
Against Great Britain in the quarterfinals, they dropped just four points to down their opponents 6-0 (59-51 59-51 58-50). In the semifinals, they had a slow start, aggregating 56 in the first set but their eighth-seeded Turkish rivals Gulnaz Coskun, Ezgi Basaran and Yasemin Anagoz shot a poor 51 to concede the first set by five points.
The Indians stepped up in the second set to edge out their rivals by one point before they went on to lose their first set of the day when the Turkish team won the third 55-54 to make it 2-4. Needing a tie in the fourth set to confirm their passage to the final, the Indians held their nerve and stood to their task for a 5-3 (56-51 57-56 54-55 55-55) win.
Luck also was on their side as they did not have to face their nemesis Koreans as the top seeds were upset by the eighth-seeded Turkish team in the quarters. In the final on Sunday, they will be up against the third seed Chinese Taipei, who have Rio Olympics team bronze medallist Lei Chien-Ying in the line-up.
The men's recurve team of Tarundeep Rai, Jayanta Talukdar and Pravin Jadhav, seeded eighth, was eliminated after losing the first round against Switzerland. Having got a bye into the pre-quarters, the Indian trio lost 4-5 to Florian Faber, Keziah Chabin and Thomas Rufer in the shoot-off (53-57 58-54 49-53 58-50) (25-25).
The shoot-off also was a tie and the Swiss team was declared the winner since its final arrow landed close to the centre. Locked two-all, Indians suffered badly in the third set shooting a series of five 8s, which proved to be decisive in the end.
(Inputs PTI)
