Paris Olympics: India’s archers need to buck history of mental frailty in knockout rounds

India's Ankita Bhakat in action at Paris Olympics (X)

The stars couldn’t have aligned any better for India’s men’s and women’s archery teams. Ahead of the elimination rounds, their strong performances in qualifying had opened up easier pathways to the semi-final and possible medals. The men had finished third, with Dhiraj Bommadevara finishing fourth in the individual rankings. Turkey, the quarterfinal opponents, had Mete Gazoz, the 2020 Olympic champion, in their ranks, but had finished 21 points behind India in qualifying. South Korea, Chinese Taipei and Japan, the three medallists from Tokyo, were all on the other side of the draw.

But with a semi-final place and a first archery medal up for grabs, India fell apart. Gazoz shot four 10s in his eight arrows, the same as Berkim Tumer, their second-ranked archer. Abdullah Yildirmis, who had finished a lowly 58th in the individual qualification, put together three 10s and five 9s. Bommadevara’s scores included two 7s, an 8 and only two 10s. Tarundeep Rai, at his fourth Olympics, had three 8s and a lone 10. Only Pravin Jadhav, with four 10s and three 9s, performed to potential.

Paris Olympics: Dismal India pinned by Turkey in archery quarterfinal

To illustrate just how badly India underperformed, look at the scores that South Korea, eventual gold medallists, produced in the knockout rounds. In the 6-0 thrashing of Japan in the quarterfinal, 11 of their 18 arrows were perfect 10s. In the semifinal against China, when they shot their worst, they still had eight 10s out of 18. In the final against France, the hosts who shot brilliantly themselves, they reeled off an astonishing 14 10s in 18 arrows. Across the three matches (54 arrows), they had just four scores of 8.

If anything, India’s women’s team were even worse. They had qualified fourth with 1983 points, in touching distance of China in second (1996). Only South Korea, winners of every gold since 1988, left them far behind (2046). The Netherlands, India’s quarterfinal opponents, had scraped in last of the 12 teams, with 1897 points.

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India’s Ankita Bhagat, Bhajan Kaur and Deepika Kumari had finished 11th, 22nd and 23rd in qualifying. The Dutch archers finished 35, 55 and 59 in the rankings. But come match time, the Netherlands, who had upset France in the earlier round, didn’t even have to be especially good to beat India. Across the three sets, the Netherlands’ best score was a modest 54. They hit just three 10s in their 18 arrows.

India had five maximums, three of them from Bhajan, but were horribly inconsistent. Ankita had scores of 4, 6, 7 and 8, while the vastly experienced Deepika had a 6, a 7 and two 8s. India’s best set score in a 6-0 drubbing was a dismal 51.

Ahead of the individual events starting on Tuesday afternoon, this mental frailty under pressure is the biggest concern. It’s hardly something new either. As far back as Barcelona in 1992, Limba Ram finished 11th in individual qualifying. He ended up 23rd. In Beijing (2008), Mangal Singh Champia qualified in second place. He exited in the round of 32 against Russia’s Bair Badenov, who eventually finished with the bronze. In qualifying, Champia had finished 20 points ahead of Badenov.

Eight years later, in Rio, Atanu Das finished fifth in qualifying. His campaign ended in the last 16, against South Korea’s Lee Seung-yun, who had qualified 12th. Unfortunately, this has been the story of Indian archery at the Olympics. It’s up to Bommadevara, Ankita, Bhajan and Deepika to somehow rewrite that narrative over the coming days.

In exclusive arrangement with RevSportz