Deepika's exit ends India's archery campaign at Games

Indian archers' dismal show came to an end at the London Olympics as World No 1 and medal hope Deepika Kumari bowed out of women's individual event after suffering an upset defeat against Amy Oliver of Great Britain in the opening round on Wednesday.

Deepika was completely off colour and was no match to her British rival, who easily pocketed the encounter 6-2.

In individual events, which are decided on best of five sets (three arrows each), the one who wins a set, irrespective of the margin gets two points.

Even as both the archers ended up with identical scores of 104 each, Oliver managed to win three sets.

The 18-year-old Ranchi girl could bag just one set, and that because of the rare error made by her opponent, who ended up shooting a four in one of her three chances in the second set.

Deepika, a double gold medal winner at the Commonwealth Games held in Delhi two years ago, failed to hit even a single perfect 10 in four sets.

On the other hand, Oliver scored two perfect 10s, besides hitting the bull's eye once.

The Indians failed miserably in the men's and women's team events earlier and the trend continued in the individual events too.

Rahul Banerjee, Tarundeep Rai and Jayanta Talukdar formed the men's team while Deepika, L Bombayla Devi and Chekrovolu Swuro comprised the women's outfit.

Deepika was the lone medal hope going into today's competition but it was not to be.

Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters