Olympic Archery: Indian women upstaged by Denmark

London - India’s challenge in the London Olympics archery team event ended Sunday when the women lost to Denmark by a slender one-point margin in the elimination round at the iconic Lord’s cricket ground.

The World No. 2 trio of Deepika Kumari, Chekrovolu Swuro and Laishram Bombayala Devi faltered in crunch moments to go down 210-211 to Denmark’s Carina Christiansen, Maja Jager and Louise Laursen.

The loss capped India’s dismal show in the team events after the men lost to Japan in another eliminator Saturday.

The two teams started slowly with one 10 and one 7 each out of their first six arrows as India took a slender one-point lead 52-51 by the first end.

In the second end, the Danish troika were high on accuracy and shot five arrows in the gold (three 10s and two 9s), with Jager having an 8 on the sixth arrow.

The precision shots and a pathetic 6 by Chekrovolu Swuro enabled the Scandinavians to upturn the script and open up a 4-point lead (107-103).

India found themselves in further trouble in the third end with Swuro shooting a six for the second time in the match as the Danes cashed in on their rival’s inconsistency to stretch their lead by five points (160-155).

India fought back in the final end by scoring two tens through Bombayala and Swuro. The Asian side started the final end hitting 9-10-10, and recovered four points to be a solitary point adrift (184-185) after the Danes struck 8-9-8 . The Indians finished with 9-8-9, and as Christiansen and Laursen also scored 9 and 8, Jager needed a 9 to win. And that was exactly what she shot to carry her team to the quarterfinals.

India will now hope for a medal from the individual event Monday with the bulk of the expectations on Deepika, ranked world number one.