By Bharat Sharma, IANS,
New Delhi: India’s women archers struck gold but the fancied men’s side performed below expectations and settled for a bronze in recurve team event at the Commonwealth Games here Friday.
The Indian women’s trio of Dola Banerjee, Deepika Kumari and Bombayala Devi edged out tough opponents England 207-206 in a nail-biting finish to get the first ever gold for the country at the Yamuna Sports complex.
The English girls needed a perfect ten from the last shot to come on top but managed only eight.
Archery as a sport is included in the Games programme for the first time since 1982.
The Indian female archers attributed their success to the rigorous eight-hour daily training for the past one and a half years.
In the semi-final, the hosts carved out an emphatic 213-185 win over Malaysia.
Later in the day, the Indian men archers – the top ranked team in the competition – caused a heartbreak, losing 211-216 to the eventual gold medallists Australia in their semi-final.
But the trio of Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Tarundeep Rai salvaged some prestige by prevailing over England 221-218 in the play off for bronze.
The elated women archers said they held their nerve towards the end and were also helped by a stroke of luck.
“There is a lot of luck involved in archery and today it was on our side. We were lucky to scrape through. But we played consistent throughout the tournament and that is why are here. Our one and a half years of rigorous training has paid off,” said Dola, the seniormost in the team and the 2007 World Cup final winner.
Women’s coach Poornima Mahato said: “We were practising for one and a half years, eight hours a day. In the run-up to the Games, we played five tournaments abroad. This is the first time such a big event is happening in India. We really wanted to do well”.
However, the men’s team, which recently won the World Cup in Shanghai could not play to its potential against Australia and expressed disappointment at the loss.
“We should have won the gold but we could not. There is nothing that we can do about it now. A little more humidity than usual played a part in our loss. We felt physically weaker during the match,” said Tarundeep.
Tarundeep and Rahul were not consistent with their show and a spirited Jayanta could not turn the match on his own.
“I was shooting a six and a ten pointer sometimes. It is not good enough at this level. You have to constantly hit the nine and the ten bracket,” added Tarundeep.
Jayanta colleted 72 points out of the four rounds while Rahul and Tarundeep scored 69 and 70 out of the 80 points on offer.