Tokyo: The Indian men’s recurve archery trio of Atanu Das, Pravin Jadhav, and Tarundeep Rai bowed out of Tokyo Olympics after losing to South Korea in the team event in the quarterfinals on Monday.
The Indians faltered at critical moments against the top-seed South Korean trio of Kim Je Deok, Oh Jin Hyek, and Kim Woojin today losing 2-6 at the Yumenoshima Park. In the first two sets, the Koreans were on fire, shooting 10 perfect 10s out of 12 to put pressure on the opposition.
Although the Indian trio, responded well in the second set with four 10s, Das shot a disappointing 8 in the final arrow. In three sets, Das failed to score even a single 10. Despite Jadav and veteran Rai, who stepped up with five and three 10s respectively, but it was too late by then.
Earlier, during the pre-quarterfinals, Das put up a splendid performance to see Indi through against Kazakhstan’s Denis Gankin, Ilfat Abdullin, and Sanzhar Mussayev. The Kolkata-born lad drilled six perfect 10s making up for teammates Jadav and Rai and played a key role in the victory.
With the mixed team and men’s team out of the competition, the onus is on the individual recurve events where Das, Jadav and Rai along with women’s World No1. Deepika Kumari would compete on Wednesday.
