After failing to deliver when it mattered most, India’s ace archer Deepika Kumari blamed the 4-5 defeat to Russia in the quarter-finals of the women's recurve competition at the Rio Olympics on windy conditions.
After the two teams were tied at 4-4, having won two sets each, the Russian trio of Tuiana Dashidorzhieva, Ksenia Perova and Inna Stepanova held their nerve in the shoot-off to prevail 25-23 and advance to the semi-finals.
The Russians went on to make it to the final, but were halted in their stride by the Koreans, who won their eighth successive Olympic gold with a 5-1 victory.
Korea have never lost a gold medal match since the inception of the sport in Seoul.
Deepika needed to score a perfect 10 off the final shot but the highly-rated Jharkhand archer could only manage an 8 under floodlights at the Sambodromo arena.
Strong southern winds of about 37 km/h at the historical Samba Street made matters worse for both the teams but it was the Indians who were affected the most as they finished sixth.
"We tried our best, and all of us gave 100 per cent but it's really disappointing to lose this way, once again. It was very windy was kind of blowing away us," Deepika said.
"We tried our level best and were shooting confidently but somehow we missed the crucial points. It was simply our not day. It was a close match and could have gone either away. It's very hard to digest the loss. The wind was blowing our equipment away and it was difficult to target the centre," she reasoned.
Thanks to Laishram Bombayla Devi’s fine showing, India gave the Russians stiff competition.
After her third consecutive Games appearance, Bombayla said, "This two-point loss in the shoot-off will continue to haunt us in future."
Asked whether their poor qualification ranking of seventh made a difference, Bombayla cited an example of third-ranked China, who made an exit after losing to Italy in the quarter-finals.
"It really does not matter. China qualified as third ranked team but they also lost. It's always a new target when you are on your mark," Bombayala said.
Coach Poornima Mahato said it's not the time to ponder much on the loss but to prepare well for the individuals, starting Monday.
"We are have to keep fighting and bounce back like a tiger."
