Archer Reena Kumari bows out

India's Reena Kumari failed to hold her nerves and crashed out of the women's individual archery competition in the pre-quarters finals at the 28th Olympic Games in Athens on Wednesday.

The 20-year-old Indian shot her arrows erratically to go down 148-166 to the formidable Chi Shu Yuan of Chinese Taipei, who led in each of the six series to script a convincing win at the historic Panathinaiko stadium.

Reena later admitted that she was not feeling 'confident' from the opening arrow, and her modest scores of 25, 23, 25, 23 and 24 in the first five series proved no match for the Taipei girl, who maintained a high level of accuracy and consistency all through to make her way into the quarters.

The Jharkhand lass, who has been representing India for the last four years, came into her own in the sixth and last series to pick up a high score of 28 including a 10-pointer and two 9-pointers, but it was grossly inadequate.

Even in this series, Yuan finished one point ahead of her Indian rival.

Yuan shot seven 10-pointers, including two bull's eye hits, and would now take on leading South Korean archer Jin Mi Yuan for a place in the last four.

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After a poor 43rd place finish in the ranking round, Reena Kumari had caused an upset by getting the better of Kristine Esebua of Gerogia in the opening knockout fixture, before getting past Bhutan's Tshering Chhoden in a single arrow shoot-out, but today was clearly not her day.

"From the opening arrow, I didn't feel confident and I wasn't shooting very well," Kumari said, and promised to do well in the team competition, where the Indian eves would clash with a comparatively weak Great Britain in the opening round on August 20.

Reena Kumari's defeat ends Indian eves' challenge in the individual event, with the other competitors Dola Banerjee and Sumangala Sharma having already fallen by the wayside.

India now have only one archer in fray, with the seasoned Satyadev Prasad up against South Korea's Im Dong-hyun in the men's individual pre-quarters on Thursday.

It may well be an uphill task for Prasad to advance further in the comeptition against the far superior South Korean, who finished first in the ranking round, and is considered a favourite for the title.

The two other Indian men archers - Tarundeep Rai and Majhi Sawaiyan - have already made their exit.

Earlier report: Reena in pre-quarters, Sumangala out