It was that proverbial moment of ‘so near yet so far.’
At the magnificent setting of the 17 th century Invalides arena, with the Eiffel Tower, the Grand Palais and the Army Museum standing as witnesses, Indian archers made a bit of history by making it to the mixed team bronze medal match but falling short of cornering Olympic glory in Paris 2024.
Like several much-talked-about fourth-place finish moments, which fills one in pride without a medal and includes legends such as Milkha Singh, P.T. Usha and Dipa Karmakar, the one here involving Ankita Bhakat and B. Dhiraj, hailing from Kolkata and Vijayawada respectively, has the power to give Indian archery a big morale-boosting push.
The Indian duo overcame a bit of distraction due to the absence of Korean coach Baek Woong Ki to shoot consistently well and won two rounds before losing to powerhouse Korea and then a more experienced USA side in the bronze medal duel.
Ankita and Dhiraj, who emerged as the best archers of the country in respective ranking rounds but performed the worst in team events, shot with composure to help the fifth-ranked India beat the 12th-ranked Indonesian duo of Diananda Choirunisa and Arif Pangetsu 5-1 (37-36, 38-38, 38-37).
In the quarterfinals, Ankita-Dhiraj saw off 13th-placed Spain, comprising World Cup stage team gold medallists Elia Canales and Pablo Acha, 5-3 (38-37, 38-38, 36-37, 37-36) following a keen competition.
After taking the first set and sharing honours in the second, India dropped its intensity a shade to see the scores level at 3-3 before regaining the rhythm to get the better of the Spaniards.
India began on a brighter note against Korea before being beaten 6-2 (38-36, 35-38, 37-38, 38-39) in the semifinals.
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It looked like the Indians would do the unthinkable by shooting down Korea, represented by Asian Games champion Lim Sihyeon and multiple Olympic and Worlds team gold medallist Kim Woo-jin, when the Lim-Kim combine unexpectedly began with an 8 and a 9 and allowed Ankita-Dhiraj to claim the first set.
The Koreans were in their element sooner than later and carried on with the momentum to get past the Indians.
In the bronze medal playoff against the third-ranked USA’s Worlds silver medallist and world number 1 Casey Kaufhold and multiple Olympics and World championships medallist Brady Ellison, India put up some fight before bowing out 6-2 (38-37, 37-35, 34-38, 37-35).
The pressure of the big stage and the hot and windy afternoon played their part as Ankita crumbled to secure two 7s in her opening two attempts. It handed the USA the set and upper hand to take a 4-0 lead.
The Indians clawed back strongly to secure the third set as USA slipped a bit due to Casey’s 7 and 8.
Even though Dhiraj maintained his cool to hit the yellow zone, two 8s from Ankita in the final set dashed India’s hopes.
“We never came inside the top four. It’s good for us that we’re improving since the last few Olympics. We performed the same way as we normally do in the World Cups. There are the minor things that we’ve lacked, we’ll work on them. This loss is painful, but it will make us stronger,” said Dhiraj, veiling his emotions and analysing their performance objectively.
Ankita admitted that she was under pressure. “As we were moving forward, I was hoping for a medal. So, I took some pressure. There was some wind too. I couldn’t control myself,” she said.
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