Paris, July 28: India’s most decorated archer Deepika Kumari proved to be the biggest letdown as the women’s team lost in straight sets to lowly the Netherlands in the quarterfinals to end its Olympics campaign in disappointment here on Sunday.
On a day the youngest member of the team, Bhajan Kaur, the 18-year-old from Haryana, shot an exceptional 56 out of 60 points, the two seasoned campaigners, Deepika and Ankita Bhakat, proved to be the weak links as India lost 0-6 (51-52, 49-54, 48-53).
That twice in three sets, they even failed to go past the score of 50 summed up their miserable show.
To put it in a perspective, the four-time Olympian Deepika shot a cumulative 48 points, while Ankita shot two points lesser at 46 out of a maximum 60 which included a horror shooting into the 4-ring.
Bhajan, on the other hand, shot 56, missing just four points.
This was yet another quarterfinal exit in the Olympics by the Indian team. The team had finished fourth in the qualification round.
After stuttering with 7, 8 and 6, Deepika’s only 10 in the game came in her last arrow but by then the match was done and dusted.
“This is not at all expected. Deepika performed the best in the Indian trials but let the Indian team down badly by her poor performance today,” a senior Indian archery official told PTI.
The Indian trio had defeated the same Netherlands team 6-2 en route to their fourth-place finish at the Antalya World Cup last month.
“Yes. It’s a team failure but it’s high time that Deepika should be leading from the front and the take the responsibility, and not let India down the team every time at Olympics.” Indian women’s coach Purnima Mahato agreed that Deepika failed to shoot with a “strong mentality”.
“Being a celebrated archer, you need to shoot with a strong mentality,” Mahato told PTI.
“It’s a team failure, hope to overcome this and put up a better show in the mixed and individual events.” Having topped the qualification among Indians, Ankita will partner Dhiraj Bommadevara in the mixed team event.
All eyes would now be on the Indian men’s team which will begin its campaign from the same quarterfinal stage here on Monday.
The duo of Ankita and Deepika, who played the role of ‘opener and finisher’ in the three-member side, looked under pressure as they took time to shoot.
It led to a poor start as Ankita started off with a 7, mounting early pressure. (PTI)
