TOKYO, July 29: Indian archer Atanu Das on Thursday proved a point by knocking out two-time Olympic champion Oh Jin Hyek to join his wife Deepika Kumari in individual pre-quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics.
Das, who had lost his place to rookie Pravin Jadhav in the fancied mixed team event after slipping to 35th place in the ranking round on Friday, showed nerves of steel to edge out the legendary Korean in a one-arrow shootoff.
The individual Olympic champion from London 2012 and a team gold medallist here, Oh started the shootoff with a 9 as Das deliverd a perfect 10, hitting the bull’s eye to seal the issue 6-5 (10-9) in an extraordinary fashion.
Earlier in the day, Das saw off a tough challenge from Chinese Taipei’s Deng Yu-Cheng to win 6-4 from being locked 4-4.
There will be another tough challenge in the last-16 for Das, who will face home favourite Takaharu Furukawa, an individual silver medalist at London 2012 Olympics and a team bronze winner here.
The remaining individual events, including the medal rounds of the women’s and men’s, will be decided on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
Chasing India’s first ever Olympic medal in archery, Deepika and Das, who are the first Indian couple to take part in the same discipline in the Games, are the only two Indians left in fray.
The mixed team and men’s team had made quarterfinal exits on Saturday, while the Army duo of Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav lost out in their respective last-32 matches on Wednesday.
Returning to action a week after the ‘break up’ with Deepika Kumari for the mixed pair event, Das showed amazing resilience as he bounced back from being 2-4 down to edge out the 39-year-old Korean great by the thinnest of margins.
Incidentally, Das had beaten Oh earlier too in the shootoff for a bronze medal in the Asian Championships in Bangkok in 2019.
But dealing with the utmost pressure and to win at the biggest stage of the Olympics was something “more special”.
“Yahan pe dimaag chala raha tha, dil nahin. (Obviously there was a lot of pressure but I just tried to maintain my focus and didn’t listen to my heart),” Das said after the win.
“We all know he is an Olympic champion and how great he’s… Every match in the Olympics is like a final, so it feels more special,” he added. (PTI)
