By V Krishnaswamy, IANS,
Beijing : India’s women archers failed to keep their arrows on target and finished low down in the ranking event at the Beijing Olympic Games here Saturday.
Laishram Bombayla Devi finished a poor 22nd, seasoned campaigner Dola Banerjee took the 31st place, while V Pranitha was way behind at 37th among 64 archers on the opening day of the discipline.
World record holder Sung-Hyun Park of Korea took the top spot with 673 points, while her compatriot Ok-Hee Yun was second with six less.
Bombayla carded 637, inclusive of nine bulls’ eye hits and 22 ten-pointers, at the Olympic Green archery Field. The Manipur girl, in her maiden Olympics, would take on 43rd ranked Poland’s Iwona Marcinkiewicz in the first round of the individual women’s competition Tuesday. Forty fourth ranked Iwona totalled 620.
Dola, who turned 29 exactly a week ago, got eight bulls’ eye hits and 20 ten-pointers as she accumulated 633. The Baranagar-born archer would clash with 34th ranked Marie-Pier Beaudet of Canada in the first knock-out round. Baudet collected 628 points, with half a dozen bulls’ eye hits and 18 ten-pointers.
Pranitha, a greenhorn who got into the contingent on the basis of her final trial in Kolkata, paid for her inconsistency after a good performance in the first half. Pranitha was at the 19th position with a score of 321 at the half-way stage after shooting 36 arrows, but slipped 18 places as she could only score 306 with the next 26 arrows.
With a total score of 627, Pranitha would meet 28th ranked Australian Jane Waller in her first knock-out match. Pranitha’s found the bulls’ eye thrice, besides picking up 18 ten-pointers.
The rankings for the team event was also decided on the basis of the performances of individual archers of a particular country. India took the sixth place among ten teams, and are set to get a walk-over in the pre-quarter final round to be played Sunday.
Indians thus need to win only one match — the quarter finals — in the team event to be in medal contention.
However, if results go as per rankings, India could be clubbed with a tough opponent in the last eight.