Bombayla impresses on way to Individual Recurve pre-quarters

Archer Laishram Bombayla Devi advanced to the pre-quarter-finals in the women's individual recurve competition, defeating Chinese Taipei's Lin Shih-Chia, at the Rio Olympics on Wednesday.

Participating in her third Olympics, the 31-year-old from Manipur, who finished 24th in the ranking round, came up with an impressive show while prevailing over Lin 6-2, in the 1/16 elimination.

Earlier, in the 1/32 elimination round, the Indian beat Austria's Laurence Baldauff 6-2.

Bombayla, who had lost in the second round of the women's individual recurve event at the London Olympics, outclassed Lin, who clinched a bronze medal in the women's team event, 27-24, 27-24, 26-27, 28-26.

Bombayla started with a 10 and then hit 8 and 9 to total 27 against Lin’s 24 (8, 7, 9).

The Indian scored 8, 9, 10 against Lin's hat-trick of 8s to clinch the second set.

In the third, the Chinese Taipei girl hit the bull's eye twice even as Bombayla came up with a 7 and 9 off the first two shots.

In the final shot, the Indian hit a 10 but that was not enough to win the set.

In the fourth set, Bombayla again produced a perfect score of 10 and then hit 9 twice against Lin's 7, 9, 10 to seal the issue.

Earlier, Bombayla showed tremendous nerves as she bounced back after losing the first set to outclass Laurence in the second, third and fourth sets in the first round.

Bombayla, the best Indian performer in the women's team event, scored a 24-27, 28-24, 27-23, 26-24 win in the 1/32 elimination round.

The 41-year-old Laurence started off well with a hat-trick of 9s in the first set to get the better of the Indian, who started off with a 9 but then shot 7 consecutively.

However, Bombayla hit the bull’s eye to start the second set on a dominating note and then produced consecutive 9s to bounce back into the contest.

She produced a hat-trick of 9s in the third set to lead 4-2, before sealing the contest with a series of 9, 9, 8 in the fourth set.

India's Atanu Das had entered the pre-quarter-finals of the Individual men's recurve event on Tuesday.

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