Silver lining for India

Indian recurve team members Atanu Das (left), Pravin Jadhav (centre) and Tarundeep Rai with their silver medals at the Archery World Championships in Den Bosch, The Netherlands yesterday

Den Bosch (The Netherlands): The Indian men's recurve team cracked under pressure against China to settle for a silver in the Archery World Championships here yesterday.

Seeking a maiden gold in the World Championships, India led 27-26 midway into the first set but the trio of Tarundeep Rai, Atanu Das and Pravin Jadhav let the opportunity slip later in the summit clash.

The Chinese team of Ding Yiliang, Wei Shaoxuan and Feng Hao produced a solid and consistent performance as they capitalised from the second set to seal a 6-2 win.

India thus ended their campaign with one silver and two bronze medals won in the women's compound team and individual events.

The men's recurve team was featuring in the final of World Championships after a gap of 14 years. This was India's sixth silver at the World Championships where the country is yet to win a gold medal.

Mixed feeling
"Feeling good and also bad. It was a big chance for us. We have won so many silver medals [at World Championships] but we have never won a gold. This time too, we could not able to convert this into a gold," rued Rai, who was also a member the men's recurve team that last won a silver at Madrid 2005.

Rai, along with Jayanta Talukdar and Gautam Singh, had lost to Korea 232-244 in the final of World Championship in Madrid 2005.

"But we have learnt so many things, hope it will help us to rectify our mistakes and change the colour of the medal in future," Rai, a two-time Olympian and 2010 Asian Games individual silver medallist, said.

The men's recurve team, who had slumped to No. 17 in rankings from being No. 1 in May 2011, had also surprised everyone by sealing the Olympic quota place ahead of the fancied women's team.

This was also for the first time since 2014 that the Indian men's team made the final of a world event. India had ended up with a silver at the Wroclaw Stage IV World Cup in 2014 with Rai being a member of the team, alongside Das and Jayanta Talukdar.

Tough times
Describing this as a breakthrough moment for Indian men's recurve team, the Army archer further said: "We have struggled a lot since last four-five years. Putting us in question mark can we win medals. This time we could proved them wrong and hope in future our archers will come to win medals and not just for participation."

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