Kolkata, July 10: The Indian recurve women's team lost to Italy 207-210 in the final of the world championship at Turin on Sunday. The team, consisting of Deepika Kumari, Chekrovolu Swuro and Laishram Bombayla Devi, had one point lead at half way stage from where the former world champion took charge and won.

Maiden entry into the final did weigh heavily on the minds of the Indians. The presence of Deepika Kumari, the reigning world cadet individual champion won in 2009, did not inspire the Indians as the three shot a very poor third end for a score of 50 points out of 60. The Italians turned the table on their rivals with a fine round of 55 that not only neutralized India's one point lead but gave the team a whooping four-point lead that stood the team well.

The Indians had the best round of 54 in the final end yet the team fell short by three points as the Italians celebrated the world title.

The Indians shooting order was Deepika, Chekrovolu and Bombayla.

Italy won silver at Beijing 2001 and won the world title in 1999 in Riom, France. They had met the Indians seven times before with a small advantage of 4-3 on the head to head clash. The last two encounters were in favour of the Italians, with wins at the Porec 2010 and Shanghai 2009 World Cup. The only positive the Indians carried into the final was their dramatic semifinal victory that dethroned World champion and favourites, Korea.

According to reports received from Turin, the two teams appeared quite nervous on the field. The shots by the six competitors were not as fluent as usual. After the first end, the scores for each team were quite low, 51-50 for the Indians.

The first 10 by Italy was scored at their tenth shot! But with two arrows out of the yellow in the second end, they still trailed by one at the half-way mark (102-103).

After two opening 8s by Guendalina Sartori and Jessica Tomasi to start the third end, the former world champion Natalia Valeeva showed the way to her teammates with a 10. The Italians were back on track with 10-9-10 after that. As their opponents Deepika Kumari/ Chekrovolu Swuro/Bombayla Devi only had a 50-point series at that time, the local team reversed the score to lead by four (157-153).

Tension was at it height in the last end! Before the last three arrows, the Indian team came back to three points and even two points after the Italian Sartori scored an 8. The last but one arrow was a 9 for each team and the gap remained. As the Bombayla finished with another 9 for her team, Valeeva needed an 8 to win. The experienced Italian thudded a 10 to give gold to Italy (210-207)!

Kolkata, July 8: Indials Jayanta Talukdar earned India an Olympic quota place from the men's individual recurve event of the world archery championship at Turin (Italy) on Friday.

The Indian, who was seeded fifth in the elimination round of the event began his campaign from the third round match against 28th ranked Antti Tekoniemi of Finland and won by six points to four. This victory earned him a quota place.

Talukdar was one of the eight individuals to win a quota place in the men’s section. Earlier, the Indian women’s team also gave India three quota places thus a total of four berths are with India.

Talukdar failed to sustain the motivational level high in search of the coveted title and lost to 44th ranked Jeff Henckels of Luxembourg 5-6. After sharing five sets, the match went into one-arrow tie-break shot in which Talukdar hit a 9 and his rival got a 10.

Earlier, Tarundeep Rai, who was also in the third round, went down to Athens Olympic gold medallist Marco Galiazzo of Italy but not before giving a tough fight. Rai, who was ranked a lowly 62nd as against 19th ranked Italian, lost the first set at 25-27, tied the next 27-27 before winning the third set 29-28. The Indian went into lead by winning the fourth set 29-28. Rank bad shooting in the final set meant Galiazzo won it at 27-22 to tie the points at 5-5. The contest went into tie-break where both shot 10 points each. But the Italian was declared the winner because his arrow was closer to the centre.

The third Indian Rahul Banerjee, ranked 72nd, lost to 41st ranked Japanese Hideki Kikuchi 6-4.

In the women's section, both Deepika Kumari and Laishram Bombayla Devi failed to go past the third round. The ninth ranked Deepika lost to 41st ranked Natalia Lesniak of Poland 5-6. The 15th ranked Bombayla went down to 18th ranked Miranda Leek of the U.S. 3-7. Chekrovolu Swuro bowed out in the second round on Thursday.

Only the women's team will be seen in action on Sunday where it will take on Italy in the final.

Kolkata, July 6: History was created at Turin, the venue of the ongoing world archery championship, where the Indian women’s recurve team of Laishram Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari and Chekrovolu Swuro, not only booked the three Olympic quota places but outscored defending champion Korea in the semifinals by 216 points to 212 to make its maiden entry into the final today.

Never before an Indian women's team ever entered the final of a world championship. The best so far was fourth place finish by an Indian women's team at the 2005 Madrid Worlds when the Indian men's team moved into the final and settled for silver.

It could have been a wonderful day for Indian archery but for the first round loss suffered by the Indian men's recurve team, comprising Rahul Banerjee, Tarundeep Rai and Jayanta Talukdar, at the hands of China in the first round. India lost by a point, the score being 216-215 in favour of the winner.

Despite the loss, India had another chance to qualify when the Olympic Games host Great Britain also moved within top eight. Since the host gets three berths in the London Games, two best first round losing teams got another chance to play-off. There too India came a cropper.

Overwhelmed by the Indian ladies’ show, Prof. Vijay Kumar Malhotra, President, Archery Association of India proudly conveyed his heartiest congratulations to Indian women's team of Deepika Kumari, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Chekrovolu Swuro for confirming three quota places for 2012 Olympics in London and for entering the final of the World Championship for the first time in the history of Indian archery.

" It was really a wonderful performance by the Indian contingent and the recurve Women's team deserves special appreciation because of its commendable victory over World Champion Korea in the semi-finals. I am personally very happy to hear the good news in a day and wish them all the very best for bringing more glory and laurels for the country in the World Championship" Prof. Malhotra said.

Indian women trailed France by two points in the first end of six arrows (51-53) in the first round clash. Two teams tied 54-54 in the second end while France took a commanding lead at the end of third end (56-54) for a total of 163-159. in the final end of six arrows, the Indian team exploded to gather a whooping 57 points as against France’s 50 to end the match at 216-213.

It was a stroll in the park for the Indians in the quarterfinals against Denmark winning the contest at 203-197 to come face to face with world champion Korea. Undaunted by the towering presence of Koreans, the Indians shot the arrows like champions to lead the first end with a score of 55-53. Korea won the second end at 54-53. Thereafter further success eluded the Koreans as India won the second end 52-51 and the final end 56-54 for a total of 216-212.

India will play Italy in the final on July 10. Italy outplayed China 221-213 in the semifinals. Korea and China will play for the bronze medal.

In the men's team final, Korea will take on France while Mexico and Italy will fight it out for the bronze medal.

In the mixed doubles, the Indian pair of Jayanta Talukdar and Deepika Kumari lost to Poland 148-150 in the quarterfinals after winning against Ukraine 144-142 in the first round.

World champion Korea, China, Italy and Ukraine assured themselves of full six quota places, three in men and as many in women's section. Italy, France, the USA and Mexico made it to London from the men's section while India, Denmark, Chinese Taipei and Russia qualified from the women's segment.

Kolkata, July 5: India on Tuesday drew one of the top Asian countries China as its first round rival in the team knockout event of the world archery championship at Turin (Italy) today.

At the end of the FITA round qualification, the three Indians, Jayanta Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai and Rahul Banerjee, returned an ordinary total of 3939 points which gave them only the 10th place.

India's first round opponent, China finished seventh with 3982 points.

In the individual qualification, Jayanta Talukdar earned a creditable fifth place finish with a total of 1354. Tarundeep Rai and Rahul Banerjee were rather disappointing ending 62nd (1296) and 72nd (1289) places respectively.

The highlight of Indians show was Talukdar's score of 343 out of 360 points in the 70m distance which gave him an overall first position.

The team elimination will take place tomorrow.

Kolkata, July 4: The famous threesome of Indian women's recurve team, consisting of Laishram Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari and Chekrovolu Swuro, gave India a flying start to the world championship by qualifying a creditable fourth with a total of 4005 points at Turin (Italy) today.

Deepika, 17, was the best among the three Indians. She finished the four-distance qualifying round with a total of 1343. This enabled her finish ninth in individual ranking. Bombayla was 15th with 1336 and Chekrovolu was 26th with 1326, according to information received here.

Ki Bo Bae of Korea topped the ranking with 1389 followed by her country mate Jung Dosami with 1361.

The higher an archer is placed in the qualifying round, the better her chances of meeting a less calibre opponent in the first round. The same rule applies in the team championship as well.

Defending champion Korea topped the team qualifying round with a total of 4088 points. China was second with 4027 and Italy was third with 4012.

In the race for Olympic quota places, the Indian women will play 13th placed France in the first round of the team elimination. France finished the qualifying round with a total of 3932. A first round win will give India three places for the London Olympics.