A couple of days ago, the Indian archery team comprising of Rajat Chauhan, Abhishek Verma and Aman Saini had to unfortunately settle for silver in the archery men’s compound team event, eventually losing to South Korea in the final. The winner was decided on the basis of maximum numbers of bulls-eyes.
Why sad story?
Well, the Indian team took the first set 60-56 and then lost the second set 54-58. The Indians came back strong in the third and final set, to out score their Korean opponents 58-56. However, the final set was eventually taken by the Koreans, winning 59-57. Thereafter, the match was forced to go into the shoot-off stage, as the overall scores were level at 229-229.
South Korea were finally declared the winners, as they had more bulls-eyes during the game. That’s how the final winner was decided, and India had to settle for silver. While this became India’s 43rd overall medal a couple of days back (now past 50) and silver is still a pretty good medal, it’s unfortunate that India had to settle for runners-up after being as good as their opponents.
Maybe, for future Asian Games tournaments, the organizers may consider a change in the bulls-eye rule to a sudden death, as it was really heart-breaking for Team India, who were so near yet so far after having to settle for silver. Nonetheless, we congratulate the team of Chauhan, Verma and Saini for this brilliant effort.
