Jayanta secures top billing despite early exit

Kolkata: Jayanta Talukdar confirmed his number one status in next month’s Finals but none of the Indians could advance beyond the pre-quarterfinals of the World Cup archery (Stage IV) at Shanghai on Saturday.

It was all-round disaster for India in the tournament billed as the last competition before the prestigious 45th World Championship coming up in South Korea in early September as Talukdar also made an early exit from his recurve event. Despite going down to world champion Im Dong Hyun of Korea 105-114, the 10th seeded Talukdar accumulated 45 points to ensure his top billing in next month’s Finals that promise USD 20,000 as first prize, USD 10,000 as second prize and USD 5,000 for third prize.It will be only the second entry for the Guwahati-born Tata Steel employee in to the finals of World Cup. He had earlier qualified for the 2006 finals where he finished last. Among his teammates, 18th seeded Rahul Banerjee fell to second-seeded Korean Lee Chang-Hwan 107-113, while eighth seed Romain Girouille of France beat 24th ranked Mangal Singh Champia 108-106. Not that the women did any better. Best ranked Indian Rimil Buriuly lost in the pre-quarterfinals while Dola Banerjee, struggling to find form and consistency, fell in the second round. Rookie Pratima Boro and Reena Kumari lost in the opening rounds to complete Indians’ tale of woes. The Indians will come up against some of the best in the team championship tomorrow. India could have won 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 the Russian team because of a tie in the qualification. Having won the contest against Russia and seeded fourth in the four-team main event, India lost to Korea 143-153 and moved to the third-place play-off which did not prove lucky. Bureau Report