Indian women seal silver at World Archery Championships

Indian trio of Deepika Kumari, Laxmi Rani Majhi and Rimil Buriuly put pressure on the Russians opening up a 4-0 lead but could not wrap the issue as they lost the next two sets before going down in the shoot-off 27-28. (Source: Express file)

Indian women’s recurve team squandered a two-set lead and went down to top seed Russians in the shoot-off to bag a silver medal at the World Archery Championships on Sunday.

The trio of Deepika Kumari, Laxmirani Majhi and Rimil Buriuly put pressure on the Russians opening up a 4-0 lead but could not wrap the issue as they lost the next two sets before going down in the shoot-off 27-28.

India thus picked their second silver in the ongoing World Archery Championships where compound archer Rajat Chauhan opened the account with a historic individual medal on Saturday.

This is India’s best ever show in the World Archery Championships where they are in hunt for a third medal, and a double for Laxmirani who will fight for a bronze in the individual recurve section later in the day.

Having grabbed an Olympic quota place for India in the women’s section, the second seeded Indian eves kept shuffling their order with the former world No 1 either shooting first or last after her teammates Rimil and Laxmirani as Russians slowly recovered from a slow start.

The trio of Tuyana Dashidorzhieva, Ksenia Perova and Inna Stepanova had a series of 9s against India’s three perfect 10s and one closest to the centre (X) to trail 54-56.

Indians maintained their lead to wrap the second set 4-0 but failed to wrap the issue in the third as Laxmirani and Rimil shot seven each.

Rimil bounced back shooting a X while Deepika, shooting last, had a perfect 10 but it was not as they lost the third set by two points.

Under pressure in the fourth set, Deepika started the proceedings with a 9 in the first end only to be let down by Laxmirani and Rimil again as they shot a poor 7 and 6 in the fourth and fifth ends respectively.

Deepika once again shot a perfect 10 to end the sixth end and the fourth set but only to lose by four points as Russians made a spirited comeback to level 4-4 to take the summit clash to the shoot-off.

In the ensuing shoot-off, Dashidorzhieva made a perfect 10 which was matched by Laxmirani while in the second end Perova shot 9 while Rimil faltered again with an 8 to put pressure on Deepika again.

Required to score a perfect 10 after Stepanova’s 9, Deepika faltered under pressure and shot a 9 as India had to settle for a silver.

This was Deepika’s second silver at the World Archery Championship as she had a similar feat in Turin 2011 along with Chekrovolu Swuro and Laishram Bombayla Devi.