Indian Archers begin Brightly at 2016 Rio Olympics

India’s female archers have beaten Columbia in their first round ‘Women’s Team’ event at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Bombayla Laishram, Laxmirani Majhi, and Deepika Kumari, will now face a difficult clash against Russia in the Quarter-Finals.

And by August 8, 2016, they could be Olympic medallists, as the ‘Women’s Team’ final will be played late on August 7 in Brazil.

‘Men’s Individual’

Indian archer, Atanu Das, also began impressively. On his Olympic debut, Das qualified in fifth place in the ‘Men’s Individual Archery Ranking Round’.

His score of 683/720 sets up a first-round clash with Jitbahadur Muktan of Nepal, who is ranked in 60th position.

The Indian will take on Muktan for a place in the last 32 on August 9, 2016.

Atanu Das, and Indian fans alike, will be reassured by the fact that Muktan qualified with a score of 607/720. And that is 76 points less than Das scored in the ranking rounds.

‘Women’s Individual’

Despite India’s female archers doing well as a team, they struggled in the individual ranking round.

Deepika Kumari was top of all female archers at the halfway point of the round. However, she ended up with a score of 640/720 which earned her a ranking position of 20th. Kumari will now face Kristine Esebua of Georgia, ranked 45.

Laishram is ranked at 24, and will compete against Laurence Baldauff of Austria, ranked 41. Both Kumari and Laishram will face their opponents on August 10.

Laxmirani Majhi, meanwhile, qualified in 43rd position and will face the 22 ranked Alexandra Longova of Slovakia. They will face off on August 8.

Indian archers to break records?

India’s 2016 female archers, Laishram, Majhi, and Kumari, have matched India’s best Olympic archery performances. The nation have now reached the Quarter-Finals of the ‘Women’s Team’ event in 2004, 2008 and 2016.

Meanwhile, an Indian archer has never made the last eight of the individual archery events. But Atanu Das, and India’s three female archers will be looking to change that over the coming days.

The Olympic ‘Men’s Individual’ final in archery is set to be played on August 12. The ‘Women’s Individual final, meanwhile, will be contested on August 11.

Click here for a complete guide to the Indian Olympic Team.