The Hindu : Sport / Archery : India misses bronze

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 19, 2004

Sport

Sport - Archery

India misses bronze

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA, JULY 18. For the second successive time, the Indian archery contingent will return home empty-handed after the women's team missed the bronze medal in the 17th Golden Arrow Grand Prix at Antalya (Turkey) on Friday.

The trio of Dola Banerjee, Reena Kumari and Sumangla Sharma lost the play-off for the third and fourth places to France 230 - 228, according to information reaching here. This was the second time the Indian women missed the bronze medal after the disappointment in the German Grand Prix at Wyhl last month.

The meet was the last before the Athens Olympics and the Indian archers failed to reach anywhere near the world standard. Hopes of India doing well in the quadrennial Games were raised after some thrilling performances at the New York World championship last July where the men's team came fourth and the women sixth, apart from good placings in the individual category.

By winning the Olympic round individual gold medal, Michelle Frangilli, the world champion from France, announced his return to form just before the Games. He beat Wietse van Alten of the Netherlands 107-104. David Barnes of Australia took the bronze, edging Kazakh Stanislav Zabrodsky 98-97.

The men's team gold went to Australia. Reigning Olympic individual champion Simon Fairweather figured prominently in the win. He, along with Barnes and Tim Cuddihy, ensured a 245-229 verdict over Turkey. The Netherlands won the bronze, beating Japan 252-249.

Ukraine has peaked at the right time with the nation winning the women's team gold and also the Olympic individual title. The lady who made this possible was Kateryna Palekha. She downed Great Britain's Alison Williamson in the one-arrow tie-break after both were tied 98-98. The Ukrainian shot a perfect 10 while Alison faltered to a 7. Tetyana Berezhna, also of Ukraine, took the bronze, defeating Iwova Marchinkiewicz of Poland 99-96.

Kateryna, along with Tetyana and Natalia Burdeyna, gave Ukraine the team gold ahead of Poland (243-230). France beat India to claim the bronze.

In the individual ranking, Tarundeep Rai was ninth, Satyadev Prasad 20th and Majhi Sawaiyan 32nd while on the distaff side, Dola was eighth, Sumangla 13th and Reena Kumari joint 18th.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport