Thaindian News

By Bharat Sharma
New Delhi, Oct 7 (IANS) India’s unsung compound archers won the men’s silver and the women’s bronze in team events to give the country its first ever Commonwealth Games medals from the sport here Thursday.

Archery has returned to the games after a gap of 28 years.

In men’s compound, the team comprising Ritul Chatterjee, Jignas Chittibomo and Chinna Raju Srither won the spectators’ hearts by winning a silver in the men’s team compound event at the Yamuna Sports Complex Thursday.

Earlier, India won their first-ever archery medal at the Commonwealth Games as the women’s trio of Gagandeep Kaur, Jhano Hansdah and Bheigyabati Chanu defeated Malaysia 223-219 in the bronze play-off.

The men’s final saw a see-saw battle before the much higher-ranked England scraped past India 231-229 on the last arrow to win their second archery gold of the Games.

Senior Archery Association of India officials, who had earlier privately conceded that the fancied recurve archers were the main medal hopes with the compound competitors having only an outside chance of medals, seemed ecstatic.

Archery Association of India secretary general Paresh Nath Mukherjee said the two medals in the compound category were a bonus.

“We were eyeing the gold after reaching so far. But our performance was not a fluke as we had trained hard for this competition. The medal shows we are capable of competing against the best,” Ritul told IANS.

The bronze medallist women’s team was also thrilled.

“It’s the first medal for India in Games archery. I am excited to be part of this. We tried our best in the semi-finals but it did not happen,” said Gagandeep.

Earlier, eventual silver medallists Canada beat India in the semi-finals by a seven-point difference with the final scoreline reading 224-217. England won the gold.

The Indian archers managed a medal despite getting the bows and arrows only a month before the competition.

“We got the equipment late but it did not affect our performance in the end,” Jhano told IANS.