The familiar quip about Korean archers is that it is easier for them to win an Olympic medal than to make a national team. He has 39 Olympic medals from the sport, of which 23 are gold medals. Tokyo's six-man squad includes four debutants this time. Two of them - Ann San and Kim J Devak - under 40, defeated ninth-seeded Indian mixed team pair of Deepika Kumari and Praveen Jadhav 6-2 in a low-scoring quarterfinal.
A few hours later the Koreans would become Olympic champions. It was the first mixed team event for India in the entire sport, which led to an upset and raised hopes of a first Olympic medal in archery.
Dipika's poor shot weakened the Indian partnership, which was teaming up for the first time in the competition. She could not find a single 10 out of 16 arrows. Olympic debutant Jadhav, who was the otherwise steady teammate of the two Indians that day, would later end any hopes of a shoot-off with a disappointing 6 in the fourth set.
Among the Koreans, Kim, just 17, was the more consistent partner, scoring five 10's in the match, while San, who made his way to an Olympic record on Friday for 680 out of a possible 720, was blown away by his fast-moving skills. I was silent and fired a lone 10.
Jadhav qualified for the competition, surpassing Deepika's regular mixed team partner and husband Atanu Das. The Archery Association of India had the option of giving Atanu an out-of-turn chance, looking at Jadhav and his better score, but they chose to stick with the numbers. The husband-wife combination had half-beaten the Dutch pair of Tokyo silver medalists Gabriella Schleser and Steve Wijler at the World Cup in Paris.
Dipika will call a 'good shot' on the first arrow of Jadhav's turn, only to land in the red for an eight. A strong gust at the Yumenoshima Park archery area, located in the Bay Area, could be at the center of the mischief. The earlier arrow fired by the surprised San had also traveled only seven. Terrible by Korean standards. Jadhav in his next eighth breath released the bowstring and a verbal self-strike.
Dola Banerjee, a two-time Olympian archer, said, "When you have timed your shot well, you know exactly where the arrow leaves before it reaches the target, that it is heading towards 10". "
"Most of the times we don't even need to see the target after shooting. It's just you, the arrow and the target. No defender can block your shot and your 10 can't be called an 8 because it is From there, in full view. The archers train to find that sweet spot between anchor and release.
"It looked like there might be a little wind today, but the situation is the same for everyone. I was a little disappointed with Dipika and the value of a fixed pair also cannot be ruled out given that she and Atanu have changed. in those days."
1 in Women's Recurve, Deepika generally seeps into the collective national consciousness and feeds on social media once in four years. She's been largely forgettable in the last two games, but this time, with hundreds of man-hours in training, a slew of experience and her triple gold medal performance at the Paris World Cup fresh in memory, hopes are dialed in. .
The Indian pair's first-round win against second-seeded Chinese Taipei came in a thrilling fashion, with both recovering from a 0-2 deficit with 10-10 in the second set to end the four-arrow affair in a tie. This put them on the scoreboard and this was followed by a brilliant roll-out of 10 off all four arrows by Jadhav-Deepika in the third, putting the Taiwanese in pressure-cooker position. Dipika still has her individual schedule where she is likely to run into the quarterfinals again in San.