Kolkata, June 13:
Five Indian recurve archers have made it to the pre-quarterfinals of the World Cup Stage II being held in Antalya, Turkey.
According to information received here, Rahul Banerjee and Atanu Das in the men’s recurve section while Dola Banerjee, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Rimil Biruly in the women’s recurve kept India’s hope alive with victories in their respective sections yesterday.
On a day when top Indian archers duo of Jayanta Talukdar and Deepika Kumari made early exits, Olympian Dola pipped Miranda Leek of the USA 6-5 in round I and then thrashed Italian Guendalina Sartori en route to the last 16.
Having qualified with a poor 25th, Deepika continued her disastrous run as she meekly surrendered 2-6 to Rimil in the second round.
Bombayla Devi beat Heather Koehl of USA 6-4 en route to the pre-quarters.
Atanu, who fared best among the Indian quartet qualifying 12th, kept his fine run as he blanked Saudi Arab’s Muidh Rajah H Albaqami 6-0 in the first round and then got the better of Massimiliano Mandia of Itali 6-4 to storm into the last 16.
Rahul faced a stiff challenge from Iraq’s Hussein Khalaf Fayyadh before prevailing 7-3 but the Indian had an easy 6-0 win over USA’s Richard Johnson in the second round to make the pre-quarters.
Talukdar had a second-round exit, going down 2-6 to Frenchman Thomas Aubert, while Rajib Basumatary was shown the door 5-6 by Muhamad Fareez Rosli (Malaysia) in the first round.
The quarters and semis are to be held later today. (PTI)
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