Atanu Das, the sole Indian representative in the men’s individual Archery event at the Rio Olympics 2016 will face Nepal’s Muktan Jitbahadur in the round-of-64. The 24-year-old Indian archer finished 5th in the Ranking Round as compared to Jitbahadur’s 60th placed finish.
The West Bengal-born archer looked in fine fettle in the ranking round and defied all odds and exceeded the expectations to finish 5th. Atanu scored a total of 683 points, which included 39 ‘10+Xs’ and 17 Xs, six more than the archers who finished in the third and fourth place.
The 5th placed finish in the ranking round means that he will have to face Archers who finished below him, till the quarterfinals at least, which increases the chance of him winning a medal.
Live Telecast
LIVE online updates: Sportskeeda Archery LIVE
Channel: Star Sports Network
Live Stream: starsports.com and Hotstar app
Date and Time: Sunday, 9 August 2016 – 11:36 BRT (20:06 IST)
Venue: Sambodromo Stadium, Rio de Janeiro.
Atanu will want to carry the momentum from the Ranking round into the knockouts and help overturn the fortunes of the Indian Archery team at the Games. Previously, the Women’s team reached the quarterfinals of their event, only to lose to Russia in the quarterfinals on a tie-breaker.
If Atanu wins the round-of-64 match, he will face the winner of the match between Ernesto Boardman of Mexico and Adrian Andres Puentes Perez of Cuba. The round-of-32 match will be played at 8.58 IST.
The only Indian who has participated in the individual event so far is Laxmirani Majhi, who lost her round-of-64 match to Slovakia’s Alexandra Longova 1-7 yesterday.