India archers make positive start at World Cup Stage 4

Indian archers began their campaign in the World Cup Stage 4 on a positive note by advancing into round three of the individual section on Thursday, PTI reported.

Barring Jayanta Talukdar who made a round two exit, all the seven recurve archers kept their hopes alive in their respective sections. The Indian mixed team’s campaign, though, went up in smoke with a 0-6 loss to Turkey in the quarterfinals.

Having begun with a 6-0 drubbing of their Polish opponents, the third seeded Indian recurve mixed team pair of Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari went down without any fight against Mete Gazoz and Yasemin Anagoz.

Former world No 1 Deepika, who got a bye to round three after finishing third in the qualification round, will face a strong challenge on Friday against London Olympics silver medalist Aida Roman.

The Mexican had a poor qualification round finishing 30th.

Deepika’s teammates Bombayla Devi Laishram, Promila Daimary and Monika Saren also won their respective matches.

Bombayla Devi, seeded 17th, who got past Nakamura Miki of Japan 6-4, will face Ana Maria Rendon of Colombia.

Promila will face Chae Young Kang of Korea. The 27th seed thrashed Claudia Mandia of Italy 6-0 in second round.

Monika’s round three opponent will be Yasemin Anagoz of Turkey. In round two, Monika got the better of Karyna Dziominskaya of Belarus 7-3.

Making a comeback after more than a year, senior Army archer Tarundeep Rai will also face a tough round three challenge when he takes on USA’s three-time Olympic medallist Brady Ellison.

Rai survived a scare before posting a 6-4 win over Onun Tezel of Turkey. In the second round Rai thrashed Hideki Kikuchi of Japan 7-3.

India’s sole man in Rio Olympics last year, Atanu Das thrashed Gudmundur Orn Gudjonsson of Iceland 6-0 in first round before posting a 6-4 win over Tom Hall of Great Britain.

The Kolkata archer, who made a pre-quarterfinal exit in the Olympics, will face 19th seed Jean-Charles Valladont of France.

Haryana lad Sachin Gupta will take on Vitalli Popov of Russia in third round. He defeated Heorhiy Ivanytskyy of Ukraine 7-3 while in round two he got the better of Alexei Trostenetchi of Moldova 6-4.