India's recurve archers advance to quarters

In a mixed day for Indian archery, the recurve section saw a thumping performance but the compound section was a big letdown, in the Commonwealth Games competition at Yamuna Sports Complex in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Top seed Rahul Banerjee, along with Jayanta Talukdar, booked quarter-final berths in men's recurve and the duo of Deepika Kumari and Dola Banerjee, too lived up to their billing to book a last-eight berth.

But the compound archers bowed out in the last 16 stage, leaving India in contention for four gold medals.

"Compound is new to us and our archers struggled against some of the world's best in the Aussies and and the English archers," India coach Poornima Mahato said.

"But our best hope is in recurve where everybody is doing well. Hopefully, we continue our march and bag four gold medals," she said.

Continuing his red-hot form, Rahul defeated Shiek Sojeb of Bangladesh in straight sets 4-0 to set up a last-eight clash with Mat Masonwells of Australia.

Having topped the ranking round on Monday, Rahul got a first round bye. Earlier in the day, Rahul toppled Terence Coward 4-0 in the second round to enter the pre-quarters.

Talukdar beat Constanti Christodoulou of Cyprus 5-1 to set up a quarter-final clash with Olympic double bronze medalist Simon Terry.

Second seeded Talukdar beat Konstantinos Loizou of Cyprous 4-0. However, the third Indian recurve archer, Tarundeep Rai, fell to Cheng Chu Sian of Malaysia 0-4.

Reigning cadet world champion Deepika Kumari, in red-hot form at the moment, waltzed past Wendy Liu Jie Tan of Singapore 4-0 to set up a last-eight clash with Australian Alexandara Feeney.

Deepika gave credit to senior member Dola Banerjee, who, incidentally, is her roommate at the Games Village.

"Her assistance is of great help. She tells me the basics whenever I go wrong. She points out my mistakes and helps me in correcting them," Deepika said.

Two-time Olympian and 2007 World Cup final gold medalist, Dola Banerjee, who is seeded second, drubbed Malaysia's Ng Sui Kim 4-2, to set up a quarter-final match against Amy Lee Oliver of England. Laishram Bombayla  Devi, seeded ninth, fell to Alexandra 2-4 in the pre-quarters.

In the compound section, Jignas Chittibomma lost to Sh Cilliers 0-4, while Chinna Raju Srither was pipped by Anthony Patrick Waddick 3-4 in the second round. Ritul Chatterjee lost 2-4 to Jules Cornet in the first round.

Among the women's compound trio, Gagandeep Kaur made the pre-quarters before bowing out to Nicky Hunt of England 2-4.

Bheigyabati Chanu and Jhano Hansdah lost out to their respective opponents in the first round of women's compound section.