Asiad: Indian women archers claim bronze medal

In a pioneering effort, Indian women archers won their maiden team medal -- a bronze -- after losing a thrilling semi-final battle to World and Olympic Champions South Korea, which was decided by a shootout at the Aoti range in Guangzhou on Sunday.

The trio of Deepika Kumari, a gold medal winner in last month's Commonwealth Games, Dola Banerjee and Rimil Buriuly lost the tense semi-final shootout to the Koreans 26-29 after being level on points (221 each) in the four regulations sets.

Later, in the bronze medal play-off the Indian women's threesome subdued a strong challenge from Chinese Taipei 218-217 to clinch a historic first team medal in the Games' history.

The Indian women rattled the Koreans with their never-say-die attitude and matched them arrow for arrow and even led the world champions at one stage before falling by the wayside finally.

In the semis, the Koreans won the opener 56-54 only for the Indians to clinch the next 56-54 and then led the favourites by two points by clinching the third set 57-55.

However, the Indian women failed to apply the knock-out punch and lost the fourth set 54-56 to lead to the tie-break after both teams were level at 221 points each.

In the shootout, the more experienced Koreans, shot 9, 10 and 10 while the Indians replied with 9, 8 and 9 and lost the battle.

The Indians, however, denied there was any extra pressure on them.

"There was no pressure. We were shooting normally and confidently," said teenaged archer Deepika.

"This is the first time we won a medal in these Games and it is a great morale booster," she said, adding, she hoped to do well in the individual events that follow on November 23.

Dola said that after today's fight, the Koreans would not take her and other Indians lightly.

"I don't think that in future the Koreans will ever take us lightly. We played as well as they did, but luck was not with us. But this is not an excuse," said India's best-known woman archer.

Team manager Gunjan Abrol praised the trio for their brilliant show against the mighty Koreans and said it was a narrow miss for the final place.

"We were distinctly unlucky to miss a place in the finals. Our archers shot brilliantly against the world champions and had them on the run. But finally it turned out to be a case of so near yet so far," he said.

"It is virtually a World Cup with powerhouses Korea, China and Japan taking part here. I think it is a great achievement," he added.

The Indians began the day with easy victories over Vietnam (225-152) and then edged past North Korea 214-202 in the quarter-finals with score reading 54-54, 51-50, 53-44 and 56-54 in the four sets to reach the semis.

In the match for the bronze medal, India overcame Chinese Taipei by a single point 218-217. Rimil notched up 74 while Deepika and Dola got identical 72.