India win a silver and bronze at Indoor Archery World Cup in Singapore

Atanu Das picked up a bronze at the Indoor Archery World Cup

The Indian archers concluded the 2013 season with a good showing at the Indoor Archery World Cup in Singapore.

In the two day event that concluded on Monday, India bagged a silver and a bronze medal, both coming in the men’s recurve section.

Asian Games silver medalist Tarundeep Rai caused a stunning upset over Olympic silver medalist Brady Ellison on the way to finishing as the second-best archer over the two days in the individual men’s recurve event.

Atanu Das meanwhile, picked up the bronze medal, after going out in the semi-final stage.

The year 2013 has been a disappointing one for India’s recurve archers as they have struggled with early exits and have been consistently outperformed by their compatriots from the compound team. In perfect indoor conditions, with no wind to cause disturbances, they restored some of that last confidence, and the result comes as a shot in the arm for their preparations for next year, which will have both the Commonwealth and the Asian Games.

The disastrous showing this year has meant that no Indian man is currently in the top 10 of the rankings in the recurve section.

Tarun’s last medal, also a silver, came at the World Cup Stage 2 event in Antalya, Turkey in May last year, and hence comes as great news for one of India’s most experienced archers.

He came through a draw that had 32 competitors and where he was ranked ninth. In the first round, he defeated Hing King Ma of Hong Kong 6-0 and then went on to beat Sultan Duzelbayev of Kazakhstan 6-4 to reach the quarters.

It was here that he came face-to-face with Ellison, the Olympic silver medalist and former world number one. But the match turned out to be relatively easy for Tarun, who beat Ellison 6-2 and then proceeded to get the better of another Kazakh in Denis Gankin in the semis with an identical scoreline of 6-2.

He fell short at the final hurdle though, as he was beaten by Frenchman Jean-Charles Valladont 2-6.

Atanu in the bronze medal play-off comfortably defeated Gankin 7-1 to ensure that there would be two Indians on the podium.