On Sunday, July 28, the Indian women’s archery team bowed out of the Paris Olympics 2024 after a shocking defeat against the Netherlands 0-6 in the quarter-final stage. The trio of Ankita Bhakat, Bhajan Kaur, and Deepika Kumari performed quite poorly in the women’s team event at the Esplanade des Invalides, failing to secure the elusive Olympic medal in archery for India.
In the first set of the women’s team event in archery, the fourth seed trio from India started a bit inconsistently with a couple of 7s before hitting three consecutive 9s, to put the Netherlands trio of Quinty Roeffen, Gabriela Schloesser, and Laura van der Winkel under some pressure. But the 12th seed stayed consistent throughout the first set, taking it with a narrow margin of 52-51.
The second set began exceedingly well for India with two consecutive 10s, but two 6s in the latter half put them firmly behind in the contest. The Netherlands trio kept up with some calm and composed archery, to take the second set 54-49.
Ankita Bhakat started the third set with a massive howler, scoring only four points out of a possible 10 in her attempt, putting India in dire straits. In the remainder of the third set, the Indian trio tried very hard to put some pressure on their opponents, but it wasn’t to be.
The couple of 10s came at the best possible time in the third set for the Netherlands trio before they secured it with a 53-48 margin. After their win against India in the quarter-final stage, the Netherlands women’s archery team are set to take on South Korea, the defending champions, in the semi-final stage later today.