The Indian men's recurve team won the silver medal after losing to China by a very small margin during their shoot-off at the Archery World Cup Stage 1 in Antalya on Sunday. In pursuit of their first World Cup gold medal since 2010, the men's recurve team of Tarundeep Rai, Atanu Das and Dhiraj Bommadevara, bounced back from a 0-4 deficit to level the scores and force a shoot-off.
But the Indian trio went down 4-5 (54-55, 50-56, 59-58, 56-55, 28-28*) with the Chinese team of Li Zhongyuan, Qi Xiangshuo and Wei Shahoxu hitting an X (closer to the centre) in the shoot-off in what turned a dramatic finish. Dhiraj then went on to grab a second medal in his World Cup debut when the 20-year-old Army man defeated Ilfat Abdullin of Kazakhstan 7-3 (28-28, 29-26, 28-29, 29-27, 29-27) to bag the bronze medal in the individual recurve section.
Dhiraj would regret missing out on silver as he squandered a 4-0 lead against Dan Olaru of Moldova to go down 6-4 (27-26, 28-27, 28-29, 26-28, 28-30) in the semifinal.
India thus ended their campaign with two golds, one silver and one bronze medal from the event.
In hindsight, the team would rue its pathetic second set where it totalled just 50 out of a possible 60, after hitting the red rings thrice (one 7 and two 8s) as China won by six points to take a 4-0 lead.
India had a slow start and China took the first set by a slender one-point margin. It was only in the third set the team bucked up to drill in a series of five 10s, including three Xs. China then cracked under pressure in the fourth set which India won by a one-point margin.
It was so near yet so far for the Indians as a gold medal continued to elude the Olympic recurve archers for another time.
In 2014, India came close to winning the World Cup twice in Stage 2 Medellin and Stage 4 Wroclaw, but on both occasions they ended up losing in the final.
India have so far won five gold medals in the men's recurve team event.
It is in the same Turkish city of Antalya where the Indian men's recurve team had tasted its first success in a World Cup way back in 2008.
India had last won a World Cup gold medal in the men's recurve team event in Shanghai in 2010.
The 39-year-old Army man Rai was also a member of the gold-winning side in Shanghai when he along with Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee had defeated Japan 224-220 in the final.
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(WITH PTI INPUTS)
