Luck deserts Indian women archers at crucial moment

Rio de Janeiro: Amid nerve wrecking tension and high drama, luck deserted Indian women archers at the crucial moment as they crashed out of Olympic archery Team competition losing to Russia 5-4 in a shootout after the two teams ended 4-4 at the end of regulation four sets in the quarter finals.   Bombayla Devi Laishram was the best shooter of the three scoring three 10s and just once hitting a 7 to keep India’s hopes alive till the end.   Indian women opened tentatively when they lost the first set badly after two 7s and one 6 saw them buckle under the pressure against the World No 2 Russia.   It was Deepika who shot 6 with the final arrow in the first set that India lost 55-48.   But both Bombayla and Laxmirani returned strongly in the second by shooting two 10s to help win the set 53-52. There was a palpable feel good factor after Deepika, who otherwise seemed out of form shot a 10 and India took 4-2 lead going into the fourth set.   But Russia shot back with an extremely confident show as Ksenia Perova fired bull’s eye twice to give them an equalizer as narrowly won the set 55-54.   In the shoot-out for the semifinal after the teams were tied 4-4, Russians shot 10, 6, 9, while the Indian women failed to take advantage of one misfired shot and posted 7, 8, 8 to bow out.   Results:   Women’s team event:   Quarterfinals: Russia (Tuiana Dashidorzhieva, Ksenia Perova , Inna Stepanova) 5 (55, 52, 50, 55, 25) beat India 4 (Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi Laishram, Laxmirani Majhi) 4 (48, 53, 53, 54, 23).