Indian archer Pooja misses semis berth

Paris: Indian archer Pooja Jatyan slipped from a two-set lead to go down to heavyweight Wu Chunyan of China 4-6 in the women’s recurve open quarterfinals of the Paris Paralympics here on Tuesday.

A winner of four Paralympics medals, including a team gold in 2016 Rio Games, the 34-year-old Chinese archer was nowhere in the picture after a disastrous opening set where she shot twice in the 7-point red ring to aggregate 23 points.

Pooja, a former World Para Championship silver medallist, had a superb start as she dropped just two points to take the first set with a five-point margin. The Gurugram-born 27-year-old archer raced to a 4-0 lead, winning a tight second set 25-24 by nailing a perfect 10 in her final arrow. Needing just one set to make her maiden semifinals, Pooja faltered with a 7 in her final arrow of the third set as the Chinese reduced the margin to 2-4 taking the third set 28-27.

Pooja slowly started to crumble under pressure as she managed just 24 points in the fourth set.

Wu levelled it 4-4 before delivering a knockout punch when she won the decider 27-24, with a perfect 10 in her final arrow.