India Win One Silver, Two Bronze Medals in Archery World Cup

Indian women's team settled for the silver after losing to Chinese Taipei in the final, while men's trio and mixed pair won their respective bronze playoffs in the first stage of Archery World Cup at the Yuanshen Stadium on Sunday.

Women's team comprising Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi Laishram and Laxmirani Majhi put up an inconsistent show that included an abysmal five in the crucial third set, to lose to the lower-ranked Chinese Taipei 2-6 in the recurve team final.

Later, the third seeded Indian men's recurve team of Atanu Das, Jayanta Talukdar and Mangal Singh Champia brought smiles back to the Indian camp, hammering ninth seed British team 6-0 to bag the bronze medal.

The mixed pair of Deepika and Atanu ended India's campaign on a high, getting the better of the much-fancied Koreans 5-4 in a nerve-wracking shoot-off to end with another bronze.

Trailing 2-4, the top seeded Indian pair bounced back to level 4-4 against the third seeds Areum Jo and Seong Cheol Park to take the match to the shoot-off, which again was a tie (18-all) as both the teams scored 9-9.

But since the Indian team was closest to centre in their second 9, it helped in edging out the Koreans.

Earlier, the fourth-seeded Indian women's team shot a poor six and eight to start off on a poor note, even as the seventh-seeded Chinese Taipei trio of Ya-Ting Tan, Chien-Ying Le and Shih-Chia Lin won by four points to take a 2-0 lead in the first set.

An improved showing in the second, which had two perfect 10s along with three 9s ensured that the Indians stayed alive to win by two points and level 2-2.

Next up, the Indians shot three perfect 10s but a five and eight jeopardised their chance of a comeback in the crucial third set with Chinese Taipei team shooting four 10s for a 4-2 lead, going into the decider.

There was no end to India's misery, while Chinese Taipei put up another good performance in the final round to wrap the fourth set with a five-point win.

Das, Talukdar and Champia, however, put up a commanding show to blank their English trio of Patrick Huston, Larry Godfrey and Kieran Slater.

The Indians blazed the range with five perfect 10s and one eight to race to a 2-0 lead before wrapping the tie in three sets with consistent shooting in the second and third.