Indian teams too depart early Indian archery hit the depths of despair in the ongoing World Cup archery (Stage IV) at Shanghai on August 8. After facing the ignominious early exit in the individual section of the recurve division the previous day, the Indian men's and women's teams made a quiet departure at the quarterfinal stage bowing to lower ranked opponents. Having won two golds and a silver medal in the earlier three legs, the third-seeded men's team moved into the quarterfinals with a facile victory over 14th ranked Ukraine 217-207. But the Indian trio of Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar allowed sixth seed Mexico to dominate the proceedings and win a semifinal berth with a verdict of 218-210. Mexico, however, failed to go past Korea in the semifinals and will play Spain in the bronze medal play-off. Spain lost to France in the other semifinals. The story in the women's section also followed the same script except that the protagonists were different. The Indian threesome of Rimil Buriuly, Pratima Boro and Dola Banerjee, seeded third, made short work of 14th ranked Kazakhstan 213-200 but came a cropper against sixth-placed Italy in the quarterfinals 215-219. Italy eventually lost to Russian Federation and Korea beat China in the semifinals. It will be Korea vs Russian Federation final and China vs Italy bronze medal play-off on Sunday. India could have gained an unexpected bronze medal but the Indian duo of Rimil Buriuly and Jayanta Talukdar lost to France 138-140 in a closely fought third-place play-off match in the mixed team event. The Indian pair had to first shoot off with Russian team because of a tie in the qualification. Having won the contest and seeded fourth in the four-team event, India lost to Korea 143-153 and moved to the third-place play-off which did not prove lucky.

Jayanta Talukdar Confirmed Seed No. 1 Kolkata: Jayanta Talukdar confirmed his status as No. 1 in the World Cup ranking and qualified for the finals on September 26 at Copenhagen despite an early exit from the World Cup archery (Stage IV) at Shanghai on August 7. Otherwise, it was a disappointing day for the Indians in the individual recurve section. None made it beyond pre-quarterfinals of a tournament billed as the last competition before the prestigious 45th World Championship coming up in South Korea in early September. Talukdar, winner of the second leg of the four-leg World Cup series at Porec, accumulated 45 points to lead two more, Simon Terry of Great Britain (43 points) and Romain Girouille of France (36), in to the finals that promises $ 20,000 as first prize, $10,000 as second prize, $ 5,000 as third prize and $1,000 as fourth prize. This was the second entry for the Guwahati-born Tata Steel employee in to the finals of World Cup. He had qualified for the 2006 finals but finished last. Dola Banerjee was the first Indian to make history by winning the prestigious title in 2007 at Dubai. Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee failed to bury the Korean bogey as Mangal Singh Champia seemed to be struggling with form. The story in the ladies' side too was not encouraging. Best ranked Indian Rimil Buriuly lost in the pre-quarterfinals while Dola failed to find form and consistency to lose in the second round. Rookie Pratima Boro and Reena Kumari lost in the opening rounds. Tenth-ranked Talukdar failed to confront world champion Im Dong Hyun of Korea in an eye-ball-to-eye-ball contest and went down 105-114. Seeded 18th Rahul Banerjee fell to second-seeded Korean Lee Chang-Hwan 107-113. Eight-seeded Romain Girouille of France beat 24th-ranked Champia 108-106. Mariana Avitia of Mexico put out Reena Kumari in the first round at 94-98. Pratima lost to Malgarzata Cwienczek of Poland 101-103. Dola Banerjee was beaten by Aida Roman of Mexico 106-110 and Aida ousted Rimil in the pre-quarterfinals, 106-110. The Indians will come up against some of the best in the team championship on August 8. The men's team has won two golds and a silver medal in three World Cup appearances this season and the women's team has won a bronze medal at the third edition at Antalya.

Indian ladies too end third Excellent show by Rimil Buriuly and Dola Banerjee, propelled the Indian women's recurve team to the third place behind world champion Korea and Russia in the World Cup archery (Stage IV) at Shanghai on August 6. The Indian trio, the third member being Pratima Boro, enabled India to score a total of 3974 points to be placed behind Korea (4100) and Russian Federation (4007). India will meet 14th-ranked Kazakhstan in the first round of the team elimination on August 8. The 18-year-old Rimil from Jamshedpur proved to be the toast of the Indian team. The Tata Archery Academy cadet totalled 1344 points from the FITA round qualification to achieve a sixth rank. Junior international and a team silver medal winner at the 2008 youth world championship in Turkey, Rimil came into the senior side early this year as the fourth member of the Indian side and travelled to Dominican Republic for the first World Cup. Rimil shot 334 points over the 70m distance and was surprised to find herself placed second overall behind Korean Yun Ok-Hee (336). The Korean, however, set a world record in the next distance - 60m - with a score of 353 which bettered her compatriot Kim Yu-Mi's score of 351 set in 2004. Veteran Dola Banerjee was placed 11th overall with a score of 1331 and the Railway employee emerged the fifth best in the 30m distance with a score of 353. Rookie Pratima was all nerves and failed to live up to her potential and finished 31st with a total of 1299. The fourth member, Reena Kumari, was one place behind with 1298.

Indian men's recurve side third overall For the first time in the ongoing World Cup series, the Indian men's recurve trio of Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh Champia finished third overall in the Stage IV at Shanghai on August 5. The three gave India a total of 3941 points behind Korea (4044) and France (3953). India's first round opponent in the team event will be Ukraine which finished 14th overall. Jayanta Talukdar with a total of 1324 points in the FITA qualification round was the best placed Indian. Rahul Banerjee finished 18th with a total of 1313 and Champia was placed 24th with 1304 points. Rookie Korean Oh Jin Hyek topped the individual qualifier with 1366 points. Lee Chang Hwan, also of Korea, was second with 1351 and Chen Wenyuan of China was third with 1338. In the FITA round qualifier at Shanghai's Yuan Shen Stadium, Talukdar did badly in the 50m event finishing 42nd (321/360) while occupying fourth (315) in the 90m, eighth (333) in the 70m and sixth (355) in the 30m events. His poor show in the 50m event obviously dragged him down to overall 10th. Banerjee excelled in the 70m occupying fifth position (335) and seventh in the 50m event (334). He, however, did not measure up in the 90m where he was placed 38th (296) and 40th in 30m (348). Champia's, who was the lone male from India to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, has been slipping in each meet. At Antalya he was 19th overall and at Shanghai he went down further in ranking to 24th. He was 36th in 90m (297), 10th in 70m (333), forty-ninth in 50m (319) and eighth in 30m (355). Had form played true, India would have stayed at second spot in the team standing. The third place finish in the team event means the Indian team will be drawn at the bottom half of the draw thus avoiding meeting top seed and favourite Korea before the final. The Indian men's team had won gold medals at the Santo Domingo and Porec World Cup meets and a silver medal at Antalya.