Atanu exits in pre-quarter-finals; Indian archers draw a blank at Rio

Atanu Das failed to make the most of opportunities that came his way in his men's individual recurve pre-quarter-final and bowed out of contention, as Indian archers drew a blank at the Rio Olympics, on Friday.

Shooting under heavy rain, the Indian archer lost 4-6 to world No 8 Lee Seung-Yun, who had earlier helped South Korea win the team gold.

However, Atanu went down with his head held high. Had he held his nerve when the Korean erred it could have been a different story altogether.

Seung-Yun registered a hat-trick of perfect 10s in the opening set to clinch it 30-28.

However, the Indian responded admirably, scoring three successive 10s to take the set 30-28 and draw abreast in the match.

The third set ended up in a tie before the Korean took the fourth.

In the decisive fifth set, the two archers were tied 19-19 after the first two shots, before Seung-Yun scored a 9 off his final arrow.

Atanu needed to go one better to take the match into a shoot-off, but the best he could achieve was 9, which was enough to tie the fifth set at 28-28 but insufficient to save the match.

Earlier, Laishram Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari and Laxmirani Majhi bowed out of contention after losing in both the women's team and individual events.

• The Rio Olympics, on Rediff.com