Indian women archery team earns Oly berth, enters final

Pitted against seventh seed Germany, Indian trio of Deepika Kumari, Laxmi Rani Majhi and <g data-gr-id="32">Rimil</g> <g data-gr-id="33">Buriuly</g> showed nerves of steel to bounce back from 1-3 to coast to a 5-3 win and make the last eight, the yardstick for making the Olympics cut.

But the experienced men’s team of Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar had heartbreak as they squandered a 4-2 lead before losing 26-29 to second seed Italy in a thrilling tiebreaker.

Banerjee, Talukdar and <g data-gr-id="28">Champia</g> can still earn individual berths by finishing among 32 when the individual section that gets underway on Wednesday.

Coached by Poornima <g data-gr-id="29">Mahto</g>, the women’s <g data-gr-id="35">team on the other hand</g> showed tremendous character after Karina Winter, Elena Richter and Lisa Unruh took away the first set 46-59. The Indian women’s trio levelled the second 5-5 to make it <g data-gr-id="34">3-1,</g> while the Germans won the third by a narrow 51-50 margin to make it 3-3.

Just when it mattered most, Indians snatched the match away with a thrilling 53-52 finish in fourth set to earn their quota places for the next year’s Olympics. In the quarterfinal, the 10th seed Indian women’s team defeated Colombia before beating Japan in the tie-break in the semifinal.

The Indian women’s team will now face Russia in the summit clash on Sunday.

Speaking to PTI from Copenhagen, Archery Association of India treasurer Virender Sachdeva said: “It’s a commendable <g data-gr-id="30">achivement</g> by the girls. They showed nerves of <g data-gr-id="31">stell</g> to only secure an Olympic quota but also qualify for the final.

“The came up with brilliant performances under difficult conditions. It is raining on and off here and the conditions are very windy,” he said.