TOKYO, July 26: Indian archers bowed out of the team events after failing to get past the mighty Koreans for a second time in the Tokyo Olympics here on Monday.
Two days after the mixed team was knocked out by Korea in the quarterfinals, the men’s trio of Pravin Jadhav, Atanu Das and Tarundeep Rai succumbed in straight sets against their formidable opponents in the same round of eight stage.
South Korea went on to win the title by smashing Chinese Taipei 6-0.
The twin blow exposed their pathetic shooting in the ranking round on Friday when all the male archers finished outside top-30, handing them tough draws.
Their first-ever Olympic medal hope in archery is fading fast as they will brace for a tougher road ahead in their respective round of 64 individual matches beginning Wednesday.
The Indian men’s team, which won a silver at the last World Championships in 2019, started the day at the Yumenoshima Park with a lot of promise, downing Kazakhstan 6-2.
But the Korean team of London 2012 champion Oh Jin Hyek, Kim Woojin and 17-year-old Kim Je Deok – the youngest archer at Tokyo Olympics – proved to be too strong against for the Indians.
India were let down by Guatemala City World Cup gold medallist Das who failed to repeat his brilliant show earlier against Kazakhstan. He could not find a single 10 in the three sets.
The Indians responded well in the third set, with a series of four 10s, but Das faltered with an 8 in the last arrow, as Korea enjoyed two near-perfect rounds.
Olympic debutant Jadhav, on the other hand, was brilliant with five 10s, while veteran Rai, in his third Games appearance, also stepped it up with three 10s.
“It’s not satisfying obviously,” Army veteran Rai said after what could be his last Olympic appearance.
“We shot better than the first match. Of course, we are still improving. We still have our individual matches, so we’ll go for that,” added Rai.
A dejected Das, who made his second Olympics appearance after Rio 2016, said: “We expected a lot in the mixed team, but unfortunately, it was not our day probably.”
Earlier in the day, Das had drilled in six perfect 10s to play a crucial role in the team’s win over Kazakhstan’s Denis Gankin, Ilfat Abdullin, Sanzhar Mussayev in their opening round.
Das showed tremendous resilience to bounce back after finishing a lowly 35th, four places behind Jadhav, in the ranking round on the opening day.
The poor finish had resulted in Das’ removal from the mixed team, where his wife Deepika Kumari, paired up with Jadhav and made a quarterfinal exit following a defeat against Korea on Saturday. (PTI)
