Sport - Olympic Games

Champia loses

BEIJING: After a lot of promise, particularly the impressive record of a second-place finish in the ranking round that must have given high hopes to Indians all over the world, Mangal Singh Champia fell in the second round by one point thus ending India’s campaign in Olympic archery championship.

After beating Vaezi Hojjatolah of Iran 112-98 in the first round, thanks to an impressive start when he had five 10s an six 9s in the 12-arrow competition, the 24-year-old Champia lost 108-109 to Bair Badenov of Russia in the pre-quarterfinals.

Two sevens in the first two sets of three arrows and an eight in the last series meant that the Indian could not catch up, despite shooting marginally better than the opponent in the last two series.

Coach Lee Wang Woo, a Korean hired by the Mittal Champions Trust who has trained teams back home to Olympic gold medals in the past, observed that the Indian archer perhaps lacked the confidence and the self-belief to come good at this level.

Champia was evidently dejected. To be ranked No. 2 in the field and then to lose to someone who had finished 31st in the ranking round was tough to digest for Champia.

The Indian women had crashed out earlier, both in the individual and team events without achieving much.

A medal in archery seems a distant dream for India even though hopes are raised every time an Indian team wins an international medal.

In rowing, Bajranglal Takhar finished fourth in the single sculls placings race, with a timing of 7:23.75. In the seventh race of the Finn class sailing competition, N.S. Johal finished 19th, an improvement from the earlier races.

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