Rio 2016: Bombayla Devi advances into pre-quarters of women's individual archery

Rio de Janeiro, Aug 10: Indian archer Bombayla Devi Laishram on Wednesday qualified into the pre-quarterfinals of Women's individual eliminations on Day 6 at Rio Olympics, thanks to some good consistent shooting.

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Bombayla first defeated Austria's Laurence Baldauff to advance in the Round of 32 and later went on to beat Chinese Taipei's world silver medallist Lin Shih-chia to advance into top 16 stage.

However, encouraging result came from the archery range where Laishram Bambayla Devi stormed into the women's individual pre-quarter finals with successive victories over Laurence Bauldaff of Austria and Chinese Taipei's Lin Shih-Chi in the elimination phase.

She will aim to make the last eight on Thursday (Aug 11).

Scores of 90 and 94 were followed by another 95, including four 10s, in the fifth series that propelled him to the fourth position at the completion of the series. However, the Army man botched things up completely in the final series that included two eights, which left him way behind in the pecking order.

Experienced woman archer Bombayla, hailing from Manipur, who finished 24th in the ranking round, dished out a dominating show to get the better off Lin 6-2 in the 1/16 elimination.

(Rio Olympics 2016 Day 6 (August 10): India's schedule)

Earlier in the 1/32 elimination round, the 31-year-old, in her third Olympics, had rallied her way to beat Austria's Baldauff 6-2. Bombayla, who had lost in the second round of women's individual recurve event at the London Olympics, outclassed Lin 27-24, 27-24, 26-27, 28-26 to reach the pre-quarterfinals.

Up against Lin, who had already clinched a bronze medal in the women's team event, Bombayla started with a 10 and then hit 8 and 9 to total 27 as against 24 (8, 7, 9) of her opponent.

#VBUpdates: #Ind's Bombayla Devi defeats #Taiwanese world silver medallist Lin Shih-chia, qualifies for round 16. #Rio2016 #Olympics

— VagaTweets (@VagaTweets) August 10, 2016

The Indian scored 8, 9, 10 against Lin's hat-trick of 8s to clinch the second set. In the third set, the Chinese Taipei girl hit the bull's eye twice even as Bombayla came up with a 7 and 9 in the first two shots. In the final shot, the Indian hit a 10 but that was not enough to win the set.

In the fourth set, Bombayla once again produced a perfect score of 10 and then hit 9 twice against Lin's 7, 9, 10 to seal the issue in her favour.

Earlier, Bombayla showed tremendous nerves as she bounced back after losing the first set to outclass Laurence in the second, third and fourth set in the first round. Bombayla, who was the best Indian performer in the women's team event, scored a 24-27, 28-24, 27-23, 26-24 qwin over her Austrian rival.

Another woman archer Deepika Kumari was set to make her first appearance in the individual elimination event later today.

OneIndia News/IANS