After Indian women archers qualified for the Beijing Games recurve event from the recent World Championships in Leipzig, they are having good practice in the Dover World Cup.

Ace archer Dola Banerjee showed glimpses of her past form, making it to the semi-finals after a nail-biting quarter final encounter with Elena Tonetta of Italy. Her teammate Chekrovolu Swuro lost in the quarter finals and the women’s team bagged the number one spot in team qualification yesterday.

Dola, unlike in the Leipzig meet, got her act together in the Meteksan event. Her qualification for the semi-final today did not come as a surprise after she finished second in the qualifying round yesterday with a score of 1345.

In the elimination rounds today, Dola, who got a bye in the Round of 32, got past Wioleta Myszor of Belgium (106-100) in Round 16 and Elena Perosini of Italy (107-83) in Round 8. In the quarters she faced stiff resistance from Italian Tonetta but prevailed 9-6 in the second arrow of the tie-break after they were tied at 109 at the end of regulation shooting and 10 each after the first tie-break. Dola now takes on Malgorzata Cwienczek of Poland in the semi-finals.

Swuro defeated Iwona Marcinkiewiez of Poland 105-100 in the elimination round of 16 and Vicktoriya Koval of Ukraine 107-106 in Round 8 before succumbing to Justyna Mospinek of Poland 108-105 in the quarter final.

Bombayla Devi went down to Belgian Sabrina Struyf 104-100 in Round 16 after getting a bye in the earlier round. It was the same old story in the men’s recurve section. Rahul Banerjee managed to reach the elimination round of eight before going down to Simon Terry of Britain 107-108 . Somai Murmu lost in Round 16.