Archery : Bombayla Devi Misses The Target

LONDON – : Bombayla Devi of India takes aim at the Lords

India’s Bombayla Devi missed the target completely in the pre-quarters to agonizingly go out of the Olympics. It was the first target miss by any archer in London 2012. But to Bombayla’s credit, she came back with two consecutive 10s after scoring zero in the first attempt of the 4th set. The individual events are not based on cumulative scores. The match is divided into 5 sets of 3 arrows each. Each set victory is awarded 2 points and a tie earns a single.

(11) Roman Aida             : 30  24  26  27
(22) Bombayla Devi L :  26  25  24  20

In the pre-quarters it was a dream start by Roman as she scored three tens. Set 2 and wind was whistling down and Bombayla kept her concentration to score 8 9 8 as Mexico’s Roman Aida struggled.

Third set and the breeze continued and both archers struggled to score a good shot and Roma Aida scored 26 points whereas Bombayla Devi only managed 24 to fall back on total points by 2 to 4.  Fourth Set and Bombayla missed scoring any point as he arrow went off target. That was it for sure but Bombayla scored ten and ten and even smiled looking at the sky as Roman Aida scored a 9 to qualify for the Quarter Finals.

Round of 32

(43) Psarra Evangelia : 27  24  26  23  25
(22) Bombayla Devi L : 25  28  28  23  25

Earlier, shooting in the wind, Bombayla Devi held her nerves and came back strongly to win her Round 32 match up against Greek Psarra Evangelia by 6 points to 4.

Psarra started strong with a 10 and then went on to win the set by 2 points. Bombayla won set number 2 even before Psarra could attempt her third arrow.

Bombayla started with a 10 in third set and then went onto to the reds to score an 8, while her compatriot had shot two nines. Times of nerves and Bombayla shot a 10. The Greek failed and the Indian had come back to lead by 4-2

With wind picking up in the stadium , in the fourth set and Bombayla shot wide to score just 4 points. She came back strongly with a 10 and the Greek Psarra struggled too with a six pointer and eventually the set was tied at 23 points.

Fifth set and Bombayla could afford a tie to progress. With rising winds Psarra shot consecutive 8s to go upto 25. Bombayla was on 18 with one arrow remaining and a 7 was enough and a 7 it was !