After all the suffocating disappointments of the last couple of days, finally the rain. There is suddenly good news from Leipzig.

Indian women archers qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games today when they defeated Russia 206-198 in first elimination round at the 44th World Outdoor Archery Championships.

By virtue of their qualification in the team event, all the three archers — Dola Banerjee, Chekrovolu Swuro and Bombyala Devi — have also become eligible to participate in the individual section of the Summer Games.

However, no such luck for the men’s team, as they failed to make the cut, going down in the very first round to the third-ranked Italians. The Indian team of Tarundeep Rai, Rahul Banerjee and Somai Murmu lost 26-27 in the tie-break after the teams were tied at 197 points.

Now the men have only the Continental Qualification Tournament to fall back on to try and make the cut.

Despite the women’s team losing the next round to Britain 196-210, their qualification for the Olympics were very much on expected lines. It is the performance of the men’s team that has come as a big surprise.

“We never expected them to do well in the individual section, but in the team event, we were almost sure of qualifying in both men and women’s section. But it is sad that the men’s team failed to make the cut,” said Paresh Nath Mukherjee, senior vice-president of the Archery Association of India.

A little unlucky one might say, as they were up against the higher ranked Italian team first up in the order, but then, they have also been shooting very poorly almost all through the tournament. “Except Rahul’s performance in the qualifiers there was absolutely nothing to talk about in the men’s team,” said Mukherjee.

... contd.