Kolkata, Aug 5 (IANS) The Indian men’s team finished third in the qualifying round of the archery World Cup Stage III at Ogden, US, while the women finished sixth, according to information received here.
The Indian team, comprising Tarundeep Rai, Mangal Singh Champia and Kapil, logged 1,982 points Wednesday.
The Indian women – Dola Banerjee, L. Bombayla Devi and Deepika Kumari – ended sixth with 1,915 points.
After two rounds of 36 arrows for a total of 72 over 70m distance, Korea dominated the proceedings, occupying the top spots in both men’s and women’s categories.
Individually, Rai stood tenth with 664 points followed by Mangal Singh (662) at 14th, Kapil (656) at 20th and rookie Karam Shiva Shankar (648) at 35th.
The best three individual scores count to make team’s total.
In women’s contest, Dola was the best Indian with a total of 653 points which earned her eighth rank. Deepika followed at 20th with 641 and Bombayla was a disappointing 40th with 621. Punya Prabha was worst coming in at 54th with 610 points.
The Indian men team had won the gold medal at the Stage II meet at Antalya in June beating the US. This time, however, the presence of world champion Korea has changed the power equation.
By virtue of finishing third, Indian men have managed to be in the bottom half with the host thus avoiding meeting the all-conquering Koreans in the semi-finals – provided the team, missing two crack archers Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee due to selection woes, progresses that far.
