Indian women recurve archers in World Championship final, secure Olympic berth

The Indian women's recurve archery team made a strong comeback to book a place in the 2016 Rio Olympics and later qualified for the final, but the men failed to advance after losing to Italy in a tie break at the World Championships here on Tuesday.

The women's trio comprising Laxmi Rani, Rimil Buriuly and Deepika Kumari had their backs against the wall at 1-3 against Germany. But they held their nerve to edge back into the contest and finally sealed it with a 5-3 win to make it through to the last eight and make the cut to next year's Olympics.

It was a tough ride, however, as the Germans refused to budge an inch. Elena Richter, Lisa Unruh and Karina Winter were steady from the start, winning the first set 46-59 to pick up two points.

The next one was a tie with 55-55 and both sides sharing a point, with Germany gaining a 3-1 lead.

But Deepika and her teammates refused to give up and finally secured the next two sets 51-50 and 53-52, which helped them pocket the game.

Later in the day, the trio came good against Colombia to win the quarter-final 6-2.

They dropped just the first set 49-54 but then clinched three consecutive ones 57-48, 52-51, 50-47 to seal the issue.

The Indians carried their momentum in the semi-final game against Japan too as they bagged the cliffhanger 5-4 via a tie breaker.

At 2-2 points, with each having won a set, Japan took the third set 47-52. But the Indians did not crumble under pressure at they made it 4-4 clinching the fourth set 56-53.

In the tie breaker, India hit all 10-pointers to surge ahead to 30 points. Japan could manage only 27 points to bow out of the match and the competition.

In the August 2 final, India will face Russia.

In the men's event, it was the opposite as the experienced trio of Jayanta Talukdar, Mangal Singh Champia and Rahul Banerjee gave up their 4-2 lead and then surrendered 26-29 to second seeds Italy in an edge-of-the seat tie breaker.

However, the three Indians can still qualify for the Olympics individually by finishing in the top 32 of the individuals event that is scheduled to start on Wednesday.