Experienced Indian archer Laishram Bombayla Devi advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the women’s individual recurve competition after defeating Chinese Taipei’s Lin Shih-Chia at the Rio Olympics on Wednesday.
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Playing in her third Olympics, the 31-year-old from Manipur, who finished 24th in the ranking round, dished out a dominating show to get the better off Lin 6-2, in the 1/16 elimination.
Bombayla, who had lost in the second round of women’s individual recurve event at the London Olympics, outclassed Lin 27-24, 27-24, 26-27, 28-26 to reach the pre-quarterfinals.
Up against Lin, who had already clinched a bronze medal in the women’s team event, Bombayla started with a 10 and then hit 8 and 9 to total 27 as against 24 (8, 7, 9) of her opponent.
The Indian scored 8, 9, 10 against Lin’s hat-trick of 8s to clinch the second set. In the third set, the Chinese Taipei girl hit the bull’s eye twice even as Bombayla came up with a 7 and 9 in the first two shots. In the final shot, the Indian hit a 10 but that was not enough to win the set.
In the fourth set, Bombayla once again produced a perfect score of 10 and then hit 9 twice against Lin’s 7, 9, 10 to seal the issue in her favour.
In the 1/32 elimination round, the Indian had rallied her way to beat Austria’s Laurence Baldauff 6-2. Bombayla showed tremendous nerves as she bounced back after losing the first set to outclass Laurence in the second, third and fourth set in the first round.
Bombayla, who was the best Indian performer in the women’s team event, scored a 24-27, 28-24, 27-23, 26-24 win in the 1/32 elimination round.
The 41-year-old Laurence started off well with a hat-trick of 9s in the first set to get the better of the Indian, who started off with a 9 but then shot 7 consecutively.
However, Bombayla hit the bulls eye to start the second set on a dominating note and then produced consecutive 9s to bounce back into the contest. She produced a hat-trick of 9s in the third set to lead 4-2, before sealing the contest with a series of 9, 9, 8 in the fourth set.
India’s Atanu Das had also entered the pre-quarterfinals of the Individual men’s recurve event.