Archery World Cup: Silver for Indian men’s recurve team, bronze for Dheeraj in individual category

The Indian men’s recurve team had to settle for a silver medal after going down to China in the shoot-off in the first leg of the Archery World Cup here on Sunday. The Indian team was eyeing the first gold medal in the World Cup after 2010. The Indian team of Tarundeep Rai, Atanu Das and Dheeraj Bommadevra scored 0. Trailing by 4, he equalized and took the match to a shoot-off. All three though 4. 5 (54.55, 50.56, 59.58, 56.55, 28.28). The Chinese team which included Li Zhongyuan, Qi Xiangshuo and Wei Shaoxu won the gold medal.

Dheeraj then won his second medal on his World Cup debut when the 20-year-old Army shooter beat Kazakhstan’s Ilfat Abdullin in the individual recurve event by 7.00. 3 (28.28, 29.26, 28.29, 29.27, 29.27) won the bronze medal. Dheeraj, however, will regret not being able to win the silver medal as he lost 4.0 against Dane Olaru of Moldova. Despite building a 0 lead, he was beaten 4 in the semi-finals. Had to face defeat from 6. India thus ended its campaign with two gold, one silver and one bronze medals.

In the team event, India had a poor performance in the second set with the Indian trio managing only 50 out of 60 points while China won the set by six points and 4. 0 lead. India started slowly and China won the first set by a single point. In the third set, India came back and scored five times in ten. India also won the fourth set by a single point. In 2014 too, the Indian team came close to winning the World Cup in the second leg in Medellin and the fourth leg in Wroclaw but lost. India has won five gold medals in the men’s recurve event. India last won a World Cup gold medal in the men’s recurve event in 2010 in Shanghai. Army’s Tarundeep Rai was also in that team while Jayant Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee along with him defeated Japan in the final.