Archery is a sport of fine margins, and a spot of luck. The margins become finer when you compete against the best in the sport at the Olympic Games. The Indians in Paris learnt it the hard way.
Dhiraj Bommadevara lost his men’s individual quarter-final match to Eric Peters of Canada in a shoot-off despite both archers shooting a 10 – the Indian’s arrow was 24 milimetres further from the centre of the target compared to Peters’ attempt. Bommadevara had a wry smile on his face as he calmly packed up his bow and left the arena.
Also in a shoot-off, Deepika Kumari won her Round of 64 match against Reena Parnat of Estonia in the women’s individual event because her arrow (just hitting the line between 8 and 9) was closer to the centre than Parnat’s (who shot 8).
However, five days later on Friday, both Ankita Bhakat and Bommadevara wrote themselves into the annals of Indian archery history when they beat Spain to reach the semi-finals of the mixed team event. This was the first time that India had progressed to the semi-finals in any archery event at the Olympics.
They would be undone by two-time champions South Korea in the semi-final and ultimately lose to the United States of America in the bronze medal match. But for Bhakat and Bommadevara, who have not had the best days in their first Olympics, it was a moment to cherish.
Before the Paris Games, there was a fair amount of chatter about the chances of the six-member Indian archery team. With the likes of rising star Bommadevara and veteran Kumari, medal hopes were pinned on the team events. Those hopes increased after their splendid performance in the ranking round.
Then both teams crashed spectacularly in the quarter-finals against the Netherlands (women’s) and Turkey (men’s). Bhakat in particular was quite sloppy in the women’s team quarter-final, shooting a 4 while Bommadevara wasn’t at his fluent best against the Turks.
But they overcame that disappointment to combine well and finish fourth in the mixed event.
The milestone
“The thing is that whoever is on top of their mindset, [that determines] how long does it take to bounce back,” said Bommadevara in an earlier interview to Scroll.
“One day is enough for someone, one month for someone. It takes years for some. I only know what my potential is.”
Bommadevara and Bhakat had only five days to recover from the disappointment of the team events and their own individual losses. But in the span of almost seven hours, they managed to rewrite their own story in Paris, against the backdrop of the famous French monument, Les Invalides.
Because of their individual scores of 666 and 681, Bhakat and Bommadevara, respectively, were seeded fifth in the mixed team event. However, the two that stepped up to face Indonesia in the Round of 16 were not the same archers that fans had seen in the days prior.
Bommadevara, on the verge of quitting the sport in 2017 because of lack of results, and Bhakat, who had to borrow equipment from her friends while learning the sport at a young age, looked fresh and confident in their abilities.
Aside from the need to recover from disappointing results early on, the Indian archery squad also had to contend with the absence of their Korean coach Baek Woong Ki whose accreditation was not processed due to reported administrative errors from the Indian federation. Baek was forced to return home to India.
Despite this kerfuffle at the start, they were fluent in the Round of 16 match, dropping seven points across three sets against Indonesia. A 5-1 scoreline was enough to see them into the quarter-final – the veritable bogeyman round for Indians in the sport.
Against Spain in the quarter-final, they were in for a tougher match with the scoreline being tied at three-all ahead of the deciding fourth set. Bhakat’s heart rate, as recorded and displayed by the broadcaster, was elevated but words of encouragement from Bommadevara, three years her junior, helped her to remain calm and secure the win for India.
Ahead of the Olympics in conversation with this publication, former Olympian and a previous teammate of Kumari, Dola Banerjee had warned that it was more about the mental battle when it came to facing the South Koreans in archery.
In the semi-final, Bhakat and Bommadevara displayed none of the fear that might have been present against the defending champions. They took the opening set and kept abreast of the South Koreans in the sets that followed, pushing it to the deciding set. Had one of the arrows shot for 8 been 9 instead, the margins would have been different.
Both Bommadevara and Bhakat are young – the former is 22 and the latter is 26. Another Olympics is definitely on the cards for them both and the experience gained in Paris will be invaluable in the future.
A fourth place finish isn’t anything new for Indian sport, or even in Paris currently, but for Indian archery, this result means a whole lot more.
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