Harpal Singh Bedi in Jakarta
Indian compound archers gave their best but luck betrayed them at the crucial moments in both men’s and women section as they lost to Korea in the both the team finals in the Asian Games here on Tuesday.
The archers were left wondering why they had to settle for the silvers medal after they put up such a tremendous show in both sections.
India thus finished the Archery campaign with two silver medals. In 2014 at Incheon India had won four medals-! Gold,1 Silver, 2 Bronze- all in compound competition.
In a the men section the final was a rip-roaring affair which ended in a shoot-out after both teams were locked 229-229.
Earlier , women archers gave fancied Korean run for their money before bowing out 228-231.
Indians were beaten but not before they gave a scare to Koreans and lost by just three point margin ..
In the men’s team final India won the first set 60-56, a solid four-point lead over Korea in the four-set final.
Korea came back strongly in the second set to win 58-54 and level the proceedings at 114-114.
It was a see-saw battle which saw India reclaim advantage in the third set, winning 58-56.
In the final set, the scores were level at 229-229 after it looked like India had won initially. But revised scores read a Korea win at 59-57 to take the match in shootout.
Both the teams had 29/30 in a nail-biting shootout round with Korea hitting the bull’s eye in the first shot making the difference.
“I will not blame anyone for this. Luck was not with us today. We did much better shooting than the Koreans but what can we do when manual scoring put us in a losing situation,” said Men’s Compound Team coach Lokesh Chand.
“Our one 9 pointer was with a star but it was adjudged as 9, while their two 9 pointers with stars were converted into 10s forcing the match into tie-shoot, in which too we failed to get benefit of doubt,” said Chand of the manual scoring necessitated after the shoot-off.
We put up a great fight. Our making to finals was itself a great achievement after losing the Individual events, he added.
The women team of Muskan Kirar, Madhumita Kumari and Jyothi Vennam won the first set, but could not sustain the momentum, going down 59-57, 56-58, 58-58, 55-58.
“The wind was somewhat a factor during the last shots, but we can’t blame the loss on that. Korean’s did shoot very well,” said Jyothi Vennam.
Madhumita Kumari too said that Koreans were well prepared for the final and came into the match with full concentration. “We did well but seems that was not enough”
ON TARGET! 🏹
Our Women's Compound Archery team has won a SILVER at the #ASIANGAMES2018!
Sharp focus, exceptional technique and a mammoth desire to succeed have yielded great results for our girl! Good job!
#KheloIndia #IndiaAtAsianGames@asiangames2018 pic.twitter.com/REZ1zbGkdQ— Col Rajyavardhan Rathore (@Ra_THORe) August 28, 2018