Indian archers 'fail to sparkle' in London Olympics ranking round: IOA
The archery competition was held at Lord’s ground on July 27, 2012 just ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony. Indian archers, both men and women, failed to sparkle as they finished 12th and ninth respectively in their team competitions in the ranking round.
Indian men’s archery team was wide off the target and finished last in the 12-team ranking round.
Men’s trio of Jayanta Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai and Rahul Banerjee totaled 1969 just as defending champions South Korea aggregated 2087 to lead the rankings and created a new team world record at London 2012.
But the South Korean archers finished as bronze medalists with Italy taking home the gold and America, the silver in the final test.
Tarundeep Rai -- who ended 31st -- scored the best amongst the Indian men while Banerjee was placed 46th and Talukdar was on 53rd position.
Meanwhile, in the women's individual competition, India’s ace archer Deepika Kumari was placed at the eighth spot after scoring 662.
She had scored 327 in the first half to be ranked 18th, but she recovered well to be ranked second in the second half after scoring 335, IOA media’s Harpal Singh Bedi said.
Other Indian women archers - Bombayla Devi scored 651 (327+324) to rank as the next best Indian at the 22nd spot, while Chekrovolu Swuro finished at the 50th place after scoring 625 (309+316).
The Indian trio of women just managed to finish ahead of Italy, Britain and Ukraine in the 12–team competition at ninth place.
Kumari, Devi and Swuro lost on Sunday to the Danish team and are now preparing to compete at individual events which begin on Monday, July 30, 2012.
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British and Indian athletes to watch out for in London 2012 Olympic Games.
