New Delhi, Oct 8 (PTI) An unprecedented haul of nine medals by the Indian archers at the Asian Games overshadowed the stark reality of their underwhelming performance in Olympic recurve discipline where they yet again failed to secure a quota place for Paris.

The continental showpiece was the second Olympic-qualifying event after the Berlin World Championships in August, but the archers are yet to secure any so far with the Olympics less than a year away.

A silver and a bronze by the men’s and women’s teams respectively may have ended a 13-year wait for a medal in the recurve at the Asian Games, but the question remains whether Indian archers are making the right progress to fulfil their dream of winning an elusive Olympic medal.

Barring Sydney 2002, where they failed to secure a quota, Indian archers have entered the Olympics since Barcelona 1988.

Twice, Deepika Kumari entered the fray as No. 1, while the men’s team was also in top-three heading into 2012 London, but on each occasion they fell by the wayside, drawing blank in eight appearances.

The biggest disappointment in archery at the Asian Games came in the men’s section where two-time Olympian Atanu Das and rising Army archer Dhiraj Bommadevara were both eliminated in the shoot-offs in their respective quarterfinals.

The duo also had a spirited qualifications round, making the cut as fourth (Das) and sixth seeds (Dhiraj).

Fresh from shocking double Olympic gold medallist Kim Woojin at the World Cup Final, 21-year-old Dhiraj misfired his arrows twice in two sets to squander his lead and go down to lower-ranked Ilfat Abdullin of Kazakhstan.

Das, on the other hand, rallied to snatch a 5-3 lead against his Chinese rival Qi Xiangshuo but failed to seal it in the final set and ended his campaign in the shoot-off where the Indian lost out by millimetres after both shot in the 10-ring.

“I tried my best but I’m not satisfied with the individual result, especially unhappy for the fact that I lost out by millimetres. But at the same time, we performed well as a team,” Das told

Source: PTI News