Men's team bag Bronze, India win maiden archery medal in Asian Games

Doha, Dec 13 (UNI) India won their maiden Archery medal in the Asian Games when the men's team beat Malaysia in a tense contest to finish third here today.

The women team, however, were unlucky to lose to formidable rivals China by just two points in the quarterfinals with the score reading 199-201.

The men's team -- comprising Tarundeep Rai, Mangal Singh Champia, Jayanta Talukdar and Vishwas -- survived some anxious moments before overpowering Malaysia 212-207 for the first ever medal in 24 years since India started taking part in the Asian Games Archery event.

India stunned fancied Japan 219-206 in the quarterfinals but lost to Chinese Taipei 210-220 in the semifinal.

And in the battle for Bronze, the Indian archers held their nerves even after trailing till the third round and shot 57 out of 60 in the last to pip the Malaysians.

India started poorly as they shot 51 in their first series of two rounds - 26 (9,8,9) and 25 (9,8,9). The Malaysians shot 52 scoring 28 (10,8,10) and 24(7,8,9).

The Indian score in the second round was 53 in two series 26(9,9,8) and 27 (7,10,10) while Malaysia shot 54 -- 28 (10,9,9) and 26 (7,9,10) in two series to lead their rivals 106-104 midway through the match.

In the third round, India came up with a score of 51, with 27 (8,10,9) coming in the first series and 24 (8,9,7) in the second.

Malaysian also fired 51 in this penultimate round 25 (8,9,8) and 26 (10,9,7) and maintained the two-point lead.

However, the Indians pulled up their socks in their last round in which they fired their best 57 with 28 (10,8,10) in first series and 29 (9,10,10) in the second to clinch the Bronze as Malaysia shot a poor 50 in this crucial round -- 26 (8,10,8) and 24 (6,9,9) -- and slipped to fourth place.

In the women's pre-quarterfinals, India outscored Malaysia 197-166 in a match in which they led throughout but in the quarterfinals they ran into formidable China and luck deserted them in this crucial tie.

The three-point difference in the last round made the difference between victory and defeat as the Indians shot superbly and staged a fine rally to be on the equal level till the third round.

The Indian team -- consisting of Dola Banerjee, Reena Kumari, Punya Prabha and Chekrovolu Swuro -- rattled their formidable rival team, comprising Zhang Juanjuan, Qian Jialing, Yu Hui and Zhao Ling, with accurate shooting.

The Chinese took an early lead when in the first round they shot 55 as against 52 by the Indians.

In the next round, the Indians narrowed the gap shooting 52 (28,24) while the Chinese fired 50 (28,22) before surging ahead shooting 47 in the third -- 27 (10,9,8) and 20 (7,7,6) -- as their rivals shot 45 (25,20).

However, in the last round, the Indians faltered shooting 48, which included 28 (10,9,9) in the first series and 20 (8,6,6) in the second.

The Chinese had a score of 51 in this round (27,24) and that knocked Indian women out.

''It was a great performance by our archers,'' claimed coach D Tiwary after the event.

''It was a world class field and the boys really did the country proud by winning the first ever medal in this sports in Asian Games and we have been able to break the medal jinx.

''The girls displayed tremendous resilience against China but last round score went against us,'' he added.

UNI HSB AY GC1915