Tokyo Olympics: Indian archer Atanu Das crashes out after losing to Japan's Takaharu Furukawa

Indian archer Atanu Das (Source: Twitter)

India's medal hopes in archery suffered a big setback when ace archer Atanu Das bowed out of men's individual event after losing to Japan's Takaharu Furukawa in the 1/8 Eliminations Round at Yumenoshima Park on Saturday (July 31). With this defeat, India's challenge in archery ends.

Furukawa defeated 29-year-old Das by 6-4 in the decider to cruise into the quarterfinals of the men's individual event.

Furukawa started the match with three consistent 9s while Das replied with 9-8-8 and handed two points to London 2012 silver medallist.

Atanu started the second set with a strong 10 but followed it by two 9s as the Japanese aimed 9-9-10 to share the points. The third round was all about Das as he levelled the match with clinical 10-10-8.

The fourth set went back and forth as both archers shared points and took the match into the decider. The nerves got better of Indian as he aimed a poor 8 on the second arrow which gave Takaharu a golden chance and he did not miss it - as he clinched the match.

#Archery : Atanu Das goes down fighting to London Olympic medalist Takaharu Furukawa 4-6 in Pre-QF.
Earlier Atanu had got the better of London Olympic Gold medalist Oh Jin-hyek in Pre-QF.
Thats END of Indian challenge in Archery. #Tokyo2020 #Tokyo2020withIndia_AllSports pic.twitter.com/XPrasLnGmL — India_AllSports (@India_AllSports) July 31, 2021

Furukawa will now face either China's Jialun Li or Kazakhstan's Ilfat Abdullin in quarters.

Earlier on Thursday, Atanu shocked South Korea's third-seed Jinhyek Oh in a nail-biting finish to make it to the 1/8 Elimination round.

On Friday, Atanu's wife and teammate Deepika Kumari bowed out of the ongoing Tokyo Olympics after losing to South Korea's An San in the women's individual quarter-finals. Top seed San defeated world number one Deepika in an absolutely dominating fashion 6-0 to march into the semi-finals of the individual event. 20-year-old San then went on to capture her third gold medal at Tokyo after finishing top of the podium in the mixed team event and the women's recurve team event.