Indian archery women settled for silver in compound event. (Source: PTI)
Both Indian men and women compound archery teams settled for silver medals at the Asian Games 2018 on Tuesday as they went down against powerhouse South Korea in the finals in Indonesia.
The women team consisting of Muskan Kirar, Madhumita Kumari and Jyothi Surekha Vennam lost their final match 231-228 in a contest that went down till the last set of arrows. India ended the first set with a lead of two points at 59-57.
Korea made a comeback to finish tied with India at 115-115, defeating India 58-56 in the second set. The two sides continued to stay level in the match at 173-173 after scoring 58 each in the third set. The Indian side faltered towards the end of the fourth set as they could not come up with a crucial 10, missing out on the gold by three points with the final scoreline reading 231-228.
Dramatic men’s final
It was a dramatic and rather cruel end to the men’s side comprising Abhishek Verma, Rajat Chauhan and Aman Saini, even though they were a point abead of their opponents South Korea at the end of the regulation four sets.
The defending champions India began well, taking a four point lead at the end of the first set at 60-56 after missing out on a 9 only once. The second set did not go so well for India as young Aman Saini who shot a 8 and 9 in the end with India dropping six points. With that, Korea drew level at 114-114.
India snatched their lead back in the third set with a two-point advantage with the scoreline reading 172-170 in India’s favour. India won the third set 58-56.
It was in the fourth set that the drama began. It first appeared that India did well to defeat Korea by two points as the scoreline read 229-227 but the scores were revised after shots were misjudged and both the finalists were tied at 229-229.
There was then a shoot off between the two sides which also levelled at 29-29. The winner was then decided on which side scored more number of 10s and that is where India lost on another gold medal.