JOIN USIndians had a mixed day in individual recurve events with women archers Laxmirani Majhi and Deepika Kumari advancing to the last 16 and only Mangal Singh Champia replicating the same among the men at the World Championships here on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Rimil Buriuly, Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee lost their respective first round outings. All Indians who have reached the pre-quarters will next take the field on Thursday.
Former World No 1 Deepika was awarded a bye for being in the top eight and has earned a direct entry into the round of 16 where she will face Yuhong Qi of China.
Laxmirani, on the other hand, had tough games in both rounds of 48 and 24, overcoming hurdles posed by French Thomas Solenne and Italian Natalia Valeeva respectively. Against Solenne, Laxmirani clinched the game 9-8 in the tie-breaker after being locked at 5-5.
The Indian took the first two sets 27-24, 29-25 but then lost two consecutive sets 26-28, 24-30. She held her nerve to have a tied fifth set at 25-25. Winning the tie-breaker helped her clinch the game with the final score reading 6-5.
In the round of 24, Laxmirani once again surrendered her two-set lead of 26-17 and 28-26 to draw the third 26-26 and then lose the last two 26-27 and 27-28. But with steely determination, she again pulled off a stunner, pocketing the tie-breaker 9-7 and the game 6-5. Next she will face Jiaxin Wu of China.
Buruily failed to even pose a threat to Karyna Dziominskaya from Belarus, who won 6-0. The Indian archer, ranked 70, lost the game 22-25, 24-27, 26-27.
In the men’s segment Champia was the star performer as he clinched the first two rounds, defeating opponents Daniel Xavier Rezende of Brazil and Kazakhstan’s Sanzhar Mussayev.
Talukdar lost the first round match against Canadian archer Jay Lyon 6-2. The scoreline read 26-27, 26-25, 26-24 and 27-26 in favour of the Canadian.Banerjee was ousted from the segment by Horacio Ernesto Boardman of Mexico, who won the game 6-0 (29-28, 28-27, 27-21).