Rio de Janeiro:
Archers Laishram Bombayla Devi and Deepika Kumari advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the women’s individual recurve event. Indian archers rounded off a good day in office at the Olympic Games on Thursday.
Competing in her third Olympics, the 31-year-old Bombayla, who finished 24th in the ranking round, dished out a dominating show to get the better off Chinese Taipei s Lin Shih-Chia 6-2 in the 1/16 elimination after beating Austria’s Laurence Baldauff in 1/32 elimination round.
Deepika also put up an excellent show as she comprehensively defeated Italy’s Sartori Guendalina 6-2 in the 1/16 elimination after prevailing over her opponent from Georgia, Kristine Esebua, 6-4 in the 1/32 elimination round.The 22-year-old from Jharkhand, who had lost in the first round in London Games four years ago, came back strongly from a set down to register a dominating 24-27, 29-26, 28-26, 28-27 victory in the end.
Deepika lost the first set before hitting two consecutive 10s and a nine in the second set to aggregate 29 as compared to 26 by the Italian.After the first two 10s, Deepika sealed the set in her favour after her opponent hit a seven and a nine in her first two attempts.The Indian once again started with a 10 in the third set, while two 9s in the next two arrows gave her a total of 28. The Italian, on the other hand, managed just 26.
Heading into the fourth set with a 4-2 advantage, Deepika tightened the noose. While both the archers began the round with an eight each, followed by 10, the last attempt made all the difference. While the Italian shot a nine, Deepika hit the bull’s eye to eke out a one-point win.Earlier, in the round of 1/32, Deepika beat her Georgian rival 27-26, 29-29, 30-27, 27-29, 29-29 to enter the next round.
In the first set, Deepika won by just one point as she managed to hit a 10 with her second arrow as compared to none by the Georgian girl.After a 29-29 tie in the second set, Deepika hit the bulls eye in her all three attempts in the third set to surge ahead 5-1.However, she lost the rhythm in the fourth set, going down 27-29. Deepika bounced back and kept her nerves in the deciding set to tie the scores 29-29 and clinch the issue in her favour.
