After a forgettable day,16 Indian archers have been left fighting for just one bronze medal at the individual Olympic round competition of the World Cup Stage 1 at Santo Domingo in Dominican Republic. The duo of Dola Banerjee and Reena Kumari will fight for third place in the womens recurve on Sunday. The rest of the Indians made an unceremonious exit on the face of some stiff challenge in the FITA round qualifications. Fourth seed Dola and 11th seed Reena lost to Alison Williamson of Great Britain and Natalia Valeeva of Italy respectively in the last-four stage. The eighth-ranked British girl beat Dola 101-95 and the Italian world champion crushed Reena 111-104. Laishram Bombayla Devi went out in the quarter-finals,losing to Dola after both tied 106-106. They tied again in the first tie-break shot at 9-9 and in the second,Dola got a 10 to Bombaylas 9. In the mens compound bow section,Kh Ratan Singh,up against top seed Dave Cousins of the US in the second round,staged the biggest upset in the competition so far,winning 117-114. However,he went out in the very next round,losing to his 17th-ranked compatriot Chungda Sherpa 108-110.
