Atanu Das provided the silver lining on another disappointing day for Indians at the Rio Olympics, entering the pre-quarter-finals of the Individual Recurve event on Tuesday.
The talented archer first blanked Jit Bahadur Muktan of Nepal 6-0 in the preliminary round and then kept his composure to prevail over Cuba’s Adrian Andres Puentes Perez 6-4 in a thrilling Round of 32 contest.
However, the road ahead for the 24-year-old from Kolkata has only got tougher. He is now up against South Korea’s former world No 5 Lee Seung-Yun.
Lee was part of the victorious South Korean outfit that won gold in the team Recurve event at the ongoing Games.
The pre-quarter-finals are scheduled for August 12.
What was impressive about Atanu was the manner in which he held his nerve for the last shot of the fifth and final set.
The score was 19-18 and he needed a '10 pointer' to ensure a place in the next round even before his opponent could take position for his final strike.
Atanu did not disappoint. He hit the 'Bulls Eye' and took an unassailable lead to win the final set 29-28.
The scoreline read: 28-26, 29-26, 26-27, 27-28, 29-28 in favour of the Kolkatan.
Earlier in the day, he made a short work of Muktan in three straight games with a comprehensive scoreline of 29-26, 29-24, 30-26, enjoying a fair lead in all three sets, including a hat-trick of perfect 10's in the final game.
