India finished 2nd behind Bangladesh in Asia Cup World Ranking Stage 1 tournament

PHUKET: Indian archers clinched two gold and six silver medals to finish second behind Bangladesh in the overall standings of the Asia Cup World Ranking Stage 1 tournament, in Phuket, on Saturday.

In a depleted field without South Korea, China, Chinese Taipei and Japan, India had stormed into seven out of 10 finals.

But they fell short on expectations and choked under pressure losing five finals, either in tie-breakers or by slender margins under overcast conditions.

Of the five losses, two were against neighbours Bangladesh, who finished atop the medal standings with three gold and one silver.

The two gold came in recurve men's team and compound women's individual section where it was an all-Indian affair.

Second seed Sakshi Chaudhary got the better of her 13th seeded teammate Parneet Kaur in a tight shoot-off finish after they were tied 140-all.

Both hit in the inner 10-ring but Sakshi edged out Parneet by shooting closer to the centre.

Parth Salunkhe, Rahul Nagarwal and Dhiraj B overcame from first round exits in the individual event to win the team gold in the recurve men's section.

The trio were at their consistent best and picked up momentum as the match wore on to defeat their rivals from Kazakhstan 6-2 (53-53, 57-57, 56-55, 57-54).

India narrowly missed out a gold in the recurve women's team event losing to Bangladesh in a tiebreaker finish 4-5 (48-47, 45-54, 56-60, 56-50, T: 27-28). Agencies

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