India's most decorated archer Deepika Kumari was the biggest letdown as the women's team lost in straight sets to lowly the Netherlands in the quarter-finals and ended its Olympics campaign in disappointment in Paris on Sunday.
On a day the youngest member of the team, Bhajan Kaur, the 18-year-old from Haryana, shot an exceptional 56 out of 60 points, seasoned campaigners Deepika and Ankita Bhakat proved to be the weak links as India lost 0-6 (51-52, 49-54, 48-53).
That twice in three sets they even failed to go past the score of 50 summed up their miserable show.
Four-time Olympian Deepika shot a cumulative 48 points, while Ankita shot two points lesser at 46 out of a maximum 60, which included a horror shooting into the 4-ring.
Bhajan, on the other hand, shot 56, missing just four points.
This was yet another quarter-final exit in the Olympics for the Indian team. It finished fourth in the qualification round.
After stuttering with 7, 8 and 6, Deepika's only 10 in the game came with her last arrow but by then the match was done and dusted.
"This is not at all expected. Deepika performed the best in the Indian trials but let the Indian team down badly by her poor performance today," a senior Indian archery official said.
The Indian trio had defeated the same Netherlands team 6-2 en route to their fourth-place finish at the Antalya World Cup last month.
"Yes. It's a team failure but it's high time that Deepika should be leading from the front and the take the responsibility, and not let India down the team every time at Olympics."
India’s women's coach Purnima Mahato agreed that Deepika failed to shoot with a "strong mentality".
"Being a celebrated archer you need to shoot with a strong mentality," Mahato said.
"It's a team failure, hope to overcome this and put up a better show in the mixed and individual events."
Having topped the qualification among Indians, Ankita will partner Dhiraj Bommadevara in the mixed team event.
All eyes will now be on the Indian men's team which begins its campaign from the same quarter-final stage on Monday.
The duo of Ankita and Deepika, who played the role of 'opener and finisher' in the three-member side, looked under pressure as they took time to shoot.
It led to a poor start as Ankita started off with a 7, mounting early pressure.
Bhajan, on the other hand, looked calm and hit a perfect 10 next, but Deepika could not finish well, faltering with a 7 as they accumulated 24 in the first end of three arrows.
It set the tone as the Dutch trio of Quinty Roeffen, Laura van der Winkel and Gaby Schloesser responded with a consistent 9-8-9 to take an early lead of two points (26-24).
There was some improvement in the next set of three arrows where the trio shot 9-9-9 to make it 51. The Dutchwomen needed 26 points and they calmly slotted 9-9-8 to make it 52 and take the opening set by one point.
Trailing 0-2, Ankita, Bhajan and Deepika started positively, hitting 10-10-8 and had a three-point lead at the first end of three arrows in the second set.
But Ankita and Deepika's arrows landed in the outer 6 rings, even as Bhajan remained consistent hitting the 9.
It gave the perfect opportunity for the Netherlands team to cruise to a 4-0 lead, firing in 9-X-9 to take the set with a huge five-point margin.
The Indians needed to win the third set to keep their hopes alive and this time there was a horror show from Ankita who shot a 4 as the Dutch team sealed it without much fuss.
Asked what went wrong with the poor start and Ankita's score of 4, coach Mahato said: "There was some strong wind hitting the body.
"They took time to judge it and held their arrows. We could not follow the process and were holding the anchor for a long time, it added to the tension."
The Netherlands earlier eliminated higher-ranked France in straight sets and came to the quarterfinals high on confidence which also could have played a big part in the win against India.
