By IANS,
Kolkata : The Indian men’s recurve team sailed into the final with a 218-210 victory over Chinese Taipei at the third Meteksan World Cup archery meet at Antalya (Turkey) Friday.
In the individual section, the talented Rahul Banerjee narrowly missed a second successive World Cup final appearance after a solitary point loss to US archer Bardy Ellison in the semi-final.
The Indian men’s team, comprising Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar, would now play Malaysia for the gold medal.
The Indian women’s recurve team, consisting of Dola Banerjee, Reena Kumari and L. Bombayla Devi, lost in the first round to Japan at 191-193.
Indian men first took on Kazakhstan and won handsomely 224- 219. In the second round, the Indians outshot the USA 221-211 before eliminating Chinese Taipei.
The shock of the tournament was the annihilation of super power Korea in the first round at the hands of little known Germany, who won 216-210.
Banerjee, ranked eighth in the world, was tied 110-110 with the American after the regulation arrows, but lost out in the tie-break.
The American, ranked four places below Rahul, shot a ten, one more than the Indian in the one-arrow tie-break shoot-out.
Banerjee, a Jamshedpur-based Tata Steel archer, had made it to the final of the second World Cup at Porec, Croatia, where he lost to Romain Girouille of France to settle for silver.
Banerjee will now play Park Kyung Mo of Korea for the bronze medal.
The Indian had beaten Park in the semifinals of the Porec event.
However, top seeded Indian Mangal Singh Champia belied expectations to come a cropper against 16th-ranked Markiyan Ivashko of Ukraine in the pre-quarterfinals. Champia went down 108-113 to bow out of the individual event.
Jayanta Talukdar did one better than Champia, losing to Ellison 110-112 in the quarterfinals. The fourth Indian archer Priyank lost to Talukdar in the second round at 111-115.
The Indian eves continued their dismal show, with 28th ranked Reena Kumari losing in the second round to fifth-seeded Yuan Shu Chi of Chinese Taipei (105-108).
Punya Prabha, placed 46th and 49th-ranked Laishram Bombayla Devi fell in the pre-quarterfinal stage to higher rated opponents. Punya lost to world champion Natalia Valeeva of Italy 105-107 and Bombayla bit the dust against Olympic champion Park Sung Hyun of Korea 104-112.
Korean Yun Ok Hee set a world record in the 12-arrow segment of the women’s section scoring 119 out of a possible 120 points in the semifinal clash against her compatriot Park Sung Hyun.
The results:
Men’s recurve individual: Semifinals: (8) Rahul Banerjee lost to (12) Bardi Ellison (US) 110 (9)-110 (10); quarters: bt (16) M. Ivashko (ukr) 113-111; pre-quarters: bt (9) Wang Cheng Pang (Tpe) 114-113; 2nd round: bt (25) Chen Szu Yuan (Tpe) 114-108; 1st round: bt (57) Andrey Abramov (Rus) 110-107.
Pre-quarters: (1) Mangal Singh Champia lost to Ivashko 108-113; 2nd round: bt (33) Amedeo Tonelli (Ita) 113-109; 1st round: bt (64) Rafal Dobrowolski (Pol) 116-107.
Quarters: (4) Jayanta Talukdar lost to Ellison 110-112; pre-quarters: bt (13) Viktor Ruban (Ukr) 111-110; 2nd round: bt (29) Priyank (Ind) 115-111; 1st round: bt (61) Wu Fengbo (Chn) 108-106.
2nd round: (29) Priyank lost Talukdar (Ind) 111-115; 1st round: bt (36) Ryuichi Moriya (Jpn) 109-107.
Women’s recurve individual: 2nd round: (28) Reena Kumari lost to (5) Yuan Shu Chi (Tpe) 105-108; 1st round: bt (37) Liu Pi-yu (Tpe) 107 (9) – 107 (8).
Pre-quarters: (46) Punya Prabha lost to (3) Natalia Valeeva (Ita) 105-107; 2nd round: bt (14) Chen Ling (Chn) 109-102; 1st round: bt (19) Ana Maria Rendon (Col) 103-102
Pre-quarters: (49) L. Bombayla Devi lost to (1) Park Sung Hyun (Kor) 104-112; 2nd round: bt (17) Ekaterina Kharkhanova (Rus) 108-104; 1st round: bt (16) Kristina Esebua (Geo) 112-109.