The Indian women’s Archery team of Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi and Laxmirani Majhi defeated the Colombian team of Carolina Aguirre, Ana Maria Rendon and Natalia Sanchez with a score of 5-3 in the pre-quarterfinal of the Archery Women’s team event at Rio Olympics 2016.
Deepika Kumari was being touted as one of the brightest medal-winning prospects for India in the individual event. However, after a promising start to the Ranking Round that saw her surge to the top spot at one stage, her performance dipped drastically during the latter part of the event as she slipped to the 20th spot after the completion of her quota of 12 rounds and finished there with 640 points to her name.
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On the other hand, Bombayla finished 24th with a total of 638 points and Laxmirani finished on 43rd spot with a total of 614. The aforementioned performance by the Indians meant that the Indian team finished at the 7th place, thereby letting go of their chance of getting a direct entry into the quarters, which was awarded to the top 4 teams.
The Indian team started with a total of 26 (8, 9, 9) in the first of the two rounds of shooting in the first set, whereas, Colombia’s first two archers scored a perfect 10 and the third archer scored 7 to take their score to 27. The next round saw India accumulating 26 (10, 9, 7) points again, to take their total to 52, but the Colombians faltered and scored only 24 (7, 8, 9) in the next series to take their total to 51.
The Colombians started the second set with a score of 24 (9, 8, 7) in the first series. The Indians came back with a score of 27 (9, 9, 7) and the Colombians got 25 (8, 9, 9) in the next round to take their total to 50. However, Deepika’s shot hampered the Indian score as she managed only a 7 when the team needed a 9 to win the set. This meant that the Colombians gained the 2 points to equal the score.
The third set started with Bombayla maintaining her streak of 9s, Laxmirani got a 7 and Deepika scored her first 10 of the match to take India’s total to 26. The Colombians came back to score a 10, 9 and 9 and took a lead of 2 points. The Indians then accumulated 25 (9, 8, 9) points and the Colombian trio scored 24 (6, 9, 9) to take the set by a point.
However, Bombayla’s shot in the second series was re-checked and the Indians were awarded an extra point, which meant the set ended in a tie and both the teams were given 1 point each.
In the fourth and final set, Indians started with a score of 26 (8, 9, 9) and the Colombians followed it up with 25 (8, 9, 8). Bombayla then started the last series of the match with an 8, and Laxmirani and Deepika followed it up with 9s to take the score to 52.
Colombia’s Natalia Sanchez made a huge mistake as she managed to get only 3, whereas the other two Archers, Carolina Aguirre, Ana Maria Rendon got 7 and 9 respectively. As a result of which, India won the set 52-44 and took the match with an overall score of 5-3.
