France (Paris): India’s archery mixed team of Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat suffered a defeat against the pair of Kaufhold Casey and Ellison Brady of the USA on Friday by 2-6.
Dhiraj was accurate in his arrows but Ankita faltered at the crucial situations. The Indian duo scored 37 in the first set as Ankita started with a 7 but the Indian team recovered afterwards scoring three 10s in a row. The pair from the USA then responded with a total of 38 and won two set points. In the second set as well, the Indian women's archer scored just 7 at the start and it hampered India's chances. USA hit 37 in the second set and it was 4-0 in their favour soon.
Dhiraj and Ankita showed some resilience in the third set by winning it 38-34 but in the final set, the Indian pair stumbled yet against and it was another empty-handed campaign for the country in the archery. India now have only two individual archers in the form of Deepika Kumari and Bhajan Kaur surviving in the competition. They will hope at least a medal from either of the athletes.
Although, Indian archers failed to secure a podium finish they showed a good fight.
So far, India have won three medals in the shooting and Manu Bhaker has emerged as the most prolific Indian performer so far by bagging two medals in shooting out of which one came in the individual event while one came in the mixed event.
