Paris Olympics: Dhiraj Bommadevara, Ankita Bhakat break new ground for Indian archery, but agonisingly miss out on bronze

Ankita Bhakat and Dhiraj Bommadevara in action at Paris Olympics (AFP)

India’s dreams of a first archery medal went with the light breeze at Les Invalides in Paris. They had fought valiantly to take a set off mighty South Korea, the eventual champions, in the semi-final, but the pressure of the bronze-medal match against the USA appeared to get to the duo of Ankita Bhakat and Dhiraj Bommadevara. Though India battled back to take the third set, Bhakat’s struggles with the breeze cost them dearly.

She shot two 7s and two 8s in her eight arrows, even as Bommadevara hit five 10s and three 9s. Bommadevara actually matched the USA’s legendary Brady Ellison, but though Casey Kaufhold shot poorly in the two middle sets, she summoned up two 9s to see the USA to a medal that was celebrated with fist pumps and tears.

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India had shocked the Korean duo of Kim Woo-jin and Lim Sih-yeon in the first set, with Bommadevara hitting two 10s and Bhakat producing two 9s. But after that, Kim hit five 10s and a 9, while Lim, who smashed the women’s world record in qualifying, delivered two 10s and four 9s. Bhakat was exceptional in the final two sets, with three 10s, but with Bommadevara not hitting another 10 till his final arrow, India’s dreams of gold disappeared.

After the disappointments in the quarterfinals of both the men’s and women’s team events, and Bommadevara’s unfortunate exit in the round of 64 in the men’s individual competition – he had qualified in fourth place – expectations were low on Friday morning. But they started superbly in the round of 16, seeing off Indonesia 5-1 with set scores of 37, 38 and 38. Bhakat, who had also fallen at the first hurdle in the individual event, put that behind her with three 10s in her six arrows.

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Up next were Spain, conquerors of China, the No. 4 seeds, in the 1/8 Elimination round. Again, India started strongly, with two 38s giving them the first set and a share of the second. An 8 from Bhakat gave Spain parity after the third set, but two 10s from Bommadevara were enough for India to edge the fourth 37-36 and march on to the semi-finals.

No Indian archers had ever gone that far, either as a team or in the individual events, and the disappointment of losing the bronze aside, this performance is something to build on. If nothing else, it should inspire Bhajan Kaur and Deepika Kumari, when they reach the range for their round-of-16 matches on Saturday morning.

In an exclusive arrangement with RevSportz