The Hindu : Sport / Olympic Games : Sumangala, Reena in second round

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 16, 2004

Sport

Sport - Olympic Games

Sumangala, Reena in second round

ATHENS, AUG. 15. Sumangala Sharma and Reena Kumari celebrated India's Independence Day with victories and moved to the second round, while Dola Banerjee crashed out in the women's individual archery competition at the Olympic Games at the Panathinaiko stadium here today.

Reena's performance was particularly commendable as she edged past a higher ranked rival Georgia Kristine Esebua 153-149, while Sumangala got the better of Li Ju Chen of Chinese Taipei 142-133.

But Dola bowed out of the competition losing to Kirsten Jean Lewis of South Africa 131-141.

Reena displayed no nervousness and kept hitting the targets despite losing concentration in between.

Reena was off to a grand start as she hit the ``gold'' earning 10 points, while her rival began with a seven pointer. The Indian finished the first round with 27 points as against 25 by her rival.

In the second, Reena was way off the mark collecting only 21 points (7, 8, 6), while Esebua had 26 points (9, 9, 8). In the third round, both had an identical 26 points each but the diminutive Indian surged ahead in the fourth round in which she fired 29 points — one `gold', one ten-pointer and a nine-pointer, while her rival had 25 points in this round. These 29 points made all the difference in the result of the match.

Reena then had rounds of 24 (7,7 and a gold) and 26 (8, 9, 9) as against her rival's 24 and 23.

Reena hit the eye (gold) thrice and had one ten-pointer, while Esebua hit the eye only once and had a ten-pointer.

In the qualification round, Reena had totalled 620 (72 arrows) — 311 in the first half and 309 in the second. She had nine ten-pointers to her credit and was placed 43rd.

Reena's rival was ranked 22nd as she had shot 636 in the classification round. — UNI

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