By V. Krishnaswamy, IANS,
Beijing : It was curtains for Indian women archers in the Olympics, with all the three participants bowing out on the first day of the individual knock-out competition at the Beijing Games here Tuesday.
While the young V Pranitha lost in the second round to fifth seeded North Korean Kwon Un Sil, Dola Banerjee and Laishram Bombayla Devi made first round exits going down to lower-ranked opponents at the Olympic Green Archery Field.
Seasoned campaigner Dola, who finished 31st in the ranking round, lost in a shoot-off after a close contest with 34th placed Marie Pier Beaudet of Canada at the Olympic Green Archery Field.
Dola, who turned 29 earlier this month, was tied at 109 with her rival after the regulation arrows before finishing at the wrong end of a 8-10 scoreline in the one-arrow shoot-off.
Earlier, the Indian trailed by three points after the first nine regulation arrows, but pushed the battle to the shoot-off with a good score of 28 in the last set of three arrows.
National champion Bombayla missed out on a pre-quarterfinal berth, losing by two points to Polish Iwona Marcinkiewicz 101-103.
The Imphal-born archer, ranked 22nd in the qualifying round, paid for a poor score of six with the last shot of her second set of arrows that tilted the scales in Marcinkiewicz’s favour.
The East European, who finished 21 places below the Indian in the ranking competition, came up with scores of 26, 24, 27 and 24 in her four sets to move into the pre-quarterfinals. The Indian Railways employee, in contrast, found the going tough from the start, and could garner 26,24, 27 and 24 points from her four sets of arrows.
The 18-year-old Pranitha surprised 28th ranked Australian Jane Waller in the first round 106-100 to march into the pre-quarters. But the archer from Warangal, Andhra Pradesh found the famed North Korean Sil too hot to handle and made errors under pressure to succumb to a 99-106 defeat.
The country’s only remaining archer in the competition is now Mangal Singh Champia, who had a splendid ranking round where he took the second place. All eyes will be on the Jharkhand archer Wednesday, when he returns to the arena for the men’s individual knock-out competition begins.