KOLKATA, June 25: Having secured the Olympic berth in the men’s team event, India narrowly lost to hosts US under gusty wind conditions in Ogden (USA) to settle for a silver medal and conclude their campaign in the Archery World Cup Stage III.
The men’s team of Tarundeep Rai, Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee were locked 213-213 to force a shoot-off where the trio lost 27-28 to settle for a silver medal.
There was more heartbreak in store yesterday, when the Asian Games silver medallist Rai lost the individual bronze play-off to Gael Prevost in a nail-biting thriller that again stretched till the shoot-off.
India had earlier made the Olympic cut in the team’s event after finishing second in the next month’s London Games final qualification tournament that was held alongside the World Cup.
In the men’s team summit clash, world No 5 India had an 8-3 overall advantage against the world No 1 but under the windy conditions the hosts clinched the issue.
After being locked 213-213, in the shoot-off USA and India began neck and neck shooting identical 9s.
But USA went ahead with a perfect 10 as India shot a 9.
USA finished with another high 9 as India needed to shoot a perfect 10 to win but they shot a right 9 to settle for a runners-up finish.
India had another medal chance in the third place play-off of the men’s recurve individual, but Rai lost to his French opponent Prevost in a thrilling battle.
Facing each other for the first time, Preovst shot a 29 to Rai’s 28 to win the first set for a 2-0 lead.
However, a bad finish of 7-8 by Prevost in the second set meant that Rai made it 2-2 after the second set.
In the third set, Prevost shot 9-8-10, while Rai had a superb run of 10-8-10 to take the lead 4-2.
Prevost shot 9-9-10 and Rai matched him with a 9-9-10 bringing the score to 5-3 as the Frenchman had to win the fifth set to force a shoot-off and avoid a loss.
Prevost did just that shooting 9-10-9 as Rai shot 8-10-8 for a shoot-off where the Indian lost after shooting an 8. (PTI)
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