Talukdar earns India one Olympic place in archery

India's Jayanta Talukdar earned the country an Olympic quota place from the men's individual recurve event of the World Archery Championship on Friday.

The Indian, who was seeded fifth in the elimination round of the event, began his campaign from the third round match against 28th ranked Antti Tekoniemi of Finland and won 6-4. This victory earned him a quota place.

Talukdar was one of the eight individuals to win a quota place in the men's section. Earlier, the Indian women's team also gave India three quota places. Thus a total of four berths are with India.

Talukdar failed to sustain the motivational level high in search of the coveted title and lost to 44th ranked Jeff Henckels of Luxembourg 5-6. After sharing five sets, the match went into one-arrow tie-break shot in which Talukdar hit a 9 and his rival got a 10.

Earlier, Tarundeep Rai, who was also in the third round, went down to Athens Olympic gold medallist Marco Galiazzo of Italy but not before giving a tough fight. Rai, who was ranked a lowly 62nd as against the 19th ranked Italian, lost the first set 25-27, tied the next 27-27 before winning the third 29-28. The Indian went into the lead by winning the fourth set 29-28.

Rank bad shooting in the final set saw Galiazzo win it 27-22 to tie the points at 5-5. The tie went into tie-break where both shot 10 points each. But the Italian was declared the winner because his arrow was closer to the centre.

The third Indian, Rahul Banerjee, ranked 72nd, lost to 41st ranked Japanese Hideki Kikuchi 6-4.

In the women's section, both Deepika Kumari and Laishram Bombayla Devi failed to go past the third round. The ninth ranked Deepika lost to 41st ranked Natalia Lesniak of Poland 5-6. The 15th ranked Bombayla went down to 18th ranked Miranda Leek of the U.S. 3-7.

Only the women's team will be seen in action Sunday where it will take on Italy in the final.