Rio Olympics 2016: India women's archery team go past Colombia, face Russia in quarters

Rio de Janeiro: Indian women’s archery team made it to the quarter-finals of the recurve event after beating Colombia 5-3 at the Olympic Games, in Rio on Sunday. [caption id=“attachment_2941098” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  India’s Deepika Kumari at the Rio Olympics. AFP[/caption] Indian women archers would feel relieved especially Deepika Kumari and Laishram Bombayla Devi, who were a part of the team that lost to Denmark in the opening round at the 2012 London Games. Indian women will face Russian Federation in the quarterfinal. The trio of Deepika, Laxmirani Majhi and Bombayla were not at their best but managed to prevail over an even more erratic Colombian team. The two teams were on even keel at 3-3 after first three sets and the turning point came in the final set. Needing 28 points with final three arrows to beat India’s set score of 52, Colombian archer Caroline Aguirre committed harakiri as she lost control and her misdirected arrow fetched her only 3 points, much to the relief of the Indian camp. The Indians won the set by 52-44, thereby getting the crucial two points for winning the set and taking an unassailable 5-3 lead. However, it wasn’t a great performance from the Indian girls as they could hit the perfect 10 only twice – Bombayla in the first set and Deepika in the 3rd set. Deepika, India’s biggest hope in archery, was not in her elements as she started off poorly hitting a 7 with the final arrow of the first set, which India managed to pip the opposition by a point. The Jharkhand girl performed no better in the second set hitting a couple of 7s but somewhat found form in the last two sets, where she hit a 10 along with three arrows which fetched her 9 points each. Bombayla was the most consistent with a single 8 pointer, five shots of 9 points each and a perfect 10.