Four years back, 18-year-old
Deepika Kumari had succumbed to pressure and Indian archers failed to deliver a medal at the London Games. The Ranchi girl returned to her first coach
Dharmendra Tiwary
, and after getting her act together, she took the flight to Rio with newfound confidence.
History, however, repeated itself in Rio and
Deepika and her teammates failed to live up to expectations and returned empty-handed.
While the women's team was knocked out in the pre-quarterfinals by Russia, Deepika and
Laishram Bombayla Devi
were shown the door in the pre-quarterfinals. Laxmi Rani Majhi falied to clear the first round of the elimination stage.
Lone male archer
Atanu Das, in his maiden Olympic Games, however, turned in a gallant show to make the last-16 stage before bowing to his Korean rival Lee Seung-yun. Inconsistency proved to be the bane of Indian archers as they failed to hi 9 and 10 consistently throughout the tournament. In short, they failed to seize the moment when it mattered most.
The archers can hardly complain because the preparations had been impeccable. The Archery Association of India (AAI) made Bengaluru the national camp venue as the weather there was much like what was expected in Rio in August.
The team landed at Rio a month before the event to get acclimatised to the conditions there.st In spite of all this, the archers struggled to cope with the strong wind. Deepika, a former world No 1 was guilty of even missing the target once in the ranking round.
The Rio show is likely to hurt the future of the sport in the country. An Olympic medal would have given archery the facelift and attracted more youngsters. India badly needs a bigger pool of archers in order to raise the bar at the international level.
RESULTSWomen's team event: India lost to Russia 4-5 in quarters
Individual event: Laxmi Rani Majhi lost to
Baldauff Laurence
(Aut) 2-6 in first round; L
Bombayla Devi
lost to
Alejandra Valencia
(Mex) 2-6 in pre-quarters; Deepika Kumari lost to Tan Ya-Ting (Tpe) 0-6 in pre-quarters; Atanu Das lost to Lee Seungyun (Kor) 4-6 in pre-quarters
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