India win archery bronze

India won its maiden archery medal at the Asian Games when the men's team beat Malaysia in a tense contest to finish third in Doha on Wednesday.

The women's team, however, were unlucky, losing to formidable rivals China by two points in the quarter-finals, the score reading 199-201.

The men's team, comprising Tarundeep Rai, Mangal Singh Champia, Jayanta Talukdar and Vishwas, survived some anxious moments before overpowering Malaysia 212-207 for the first medal in 24 years, since India started taking part in the Asian Games archery event.

India had stunned fancied Japan 219-206 in the quarter-finals but lost to Chinese Taipei 210-220 in the semi-finals.
In the battle for bronze, the Indian archers held their nerves even after trailing till the third round and shot 57 out of 60 in the last to pip the Malaysians.

India started poorly, shooting 51 in the first series of two rounds - 26 (9,8,9) and 25 (9,8,9). The Malaysians shot 52, scoring 28 (10,8,10) and 24(7,8,9).

The Indian score in the second round was 53 in two series -- 26(9,9,8) and 27 (7,10,10) -- while Malaysia shot 54 -- 28 (10,9,9) and 26 (7,9,10) in two series to lead 106-104 midway through the match.

In the third round, India came up with a score of 51, with 27 (8,10,9) coming in the first series and 24 (8,9,7) in the second.

Malaysia also fired 51 in this penultimate round 25 (8,9,8) and 26 (10,9,7) and maintained the two-point lead.

However, the Indians pulled up their socks in their last round, in which they fired their best 57 -- 28 (10,8,10) in first series and 29 (9,10,10) in the second -- to clinch the bronze.

Malaysia shot a poor 50 in the crucial round -- 26 (8,10,8) and 24 (6,9,9) -- and slipped to fourth place.

In the women's pre-quarter-finals, India outscored Malaysia 197-166 after leading throughout, but in the quarter-finals they ran into formidable China and luck deserted them.

The three-point difference in the last round made the difference between victory and defeat as the Indians shot superbly and staged a fine rally to be on the equal level till the third round.

The Indian team -- of Dola Banerjee, Reena Kumari, Punya Prabha and Chekrovolu Swuro -- rattled their formidable rivals, comprising Zhang Juanjuan, Qian Jialing, Yu Hui and Zhao Ling, with accurate shooting.

The Chinese took an early lead when in the first round they shot 55 as against 52 by the Indians.

In the next round, the Indians narrowed the gap shooting 52 (28,24) while the Chinese fired 50 (28,22) before surging ahead, shooting 47 in the third -- 27 (10,9,8) and 20 (7,7,6) -- as their rivals shot 45 (25,20).

However, in the last round, the Indians faltered, shooting 48, which included 28 (10,9,9) in the first series and 20 (8,6,6) in the second.

The Chinese had a score of 51 in this round (27,24) and that knocked Indian women out.

''It was a great performance by our archers,'' claimed coach D Tiwary after the event.

''It was a world class field and the boys really did the country proud by winning the first ever medal in this sports in Asian Games and we have been able to break the medal jinx.

''The girls displayed tremendous resilience against China but last round score went against us,'' he added.