Rio 2016: Atanu Das storms into pre-quarters

Little fancied archer Atanu Das stormed into the pre-quarter-finals of the individual event of the Olympic Games here on Tuesday.

Das first defeated Nepalese rival Jitbahadur Muktan 6-0 and then vanquished Cuba’s Adrian Andres Puentes Perez 6-4 to enter the pre-quarters where he will face a tough rival in former world no. 5 South Korean archer Lee Seung-Yun on August 12.

Lee was a part of the victorious South Korean outfit that won a gold medal in the team recurve event at the ongoing Games.

What was impressive about Das was the manner in which he held his nerve during his last shot in the fifth and final set.

The score was 19-18 and a ‘10-pointer’ would have ensured his place in the last-16 even before his opponent had aimed for his final strike.

Das did not disappoint as he hit the ‘Bull’s Eye’ taking an unassailable lead and winning the final set 29-28. The Kolkata-based Das defeated his Cuban rival 28-26, 29-26, 26-27, 27-28, 29-28.

Earlier in the day, he made short work of Muktan in three straight games with a comprehensive scoreline of 29-26, 29-24, 30-26, enjoying a fair lead in all three sets including a hat-trick of Perfect 10’s in the final game.

However, the country continued to draw a blank medal-wise and faced reversals in the shooting range where Heena Sidhu made her exit after performing poorly in the women’s 25m pistol event where she finished a distant 20th with 576 out of 600 points.

In the 30-shot precision round, Heena accumulated 286 points out of a possible 300 with series scores of 95, 95 and 96 that pushed her in the rear of the queue.

The rapid fire segment, also of 30 shots, was to follow and the Indian shooter needs to pull up her socks but chancers of making the cut is too remote.

Heena, who had qualified by winning the gold in the Asia qualifiers, had failed to progress to the final of the 10m air pistol held on Sunday. India’s overall display in shooting, considered among their main medal hunting ground, has not lived up to expectations with the best effort coming from Beijing Olympic Games rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra on Monday, a fourth place finish in the men’s 10m air rifle event.

Others, including another major medal hope Jitu Rai, had failed to sparkle thus far. Rai flopped in the 10m air pistol event but has the 50m event to look forward to now.

London Games bronze medal winner Gagan Narang, performed poorly in the 10m air rifle to finish 23rd.