RIO DE AJNIERO: Indian archers drew a blank at the Olympic Games after Atanu Das let slip crucial chances in his men's individual recurve pre-quarterfinal to bow out of contention and draw curtains on the country's campaign in the sport here today.
Shooting amid heavy rain, Atanu went down 4-6 to World No.8 Lee Seung-Yun, who had already helped South Korea win the team gold at the event.
It was not a bad performance by the Indian but he did seem to lose his nerve on a couple of occasions and missed out on capitalising on positions of strength.
On expected lines, the Korean shot a hat-trick of perfect 10s in the opening set to clinch it 30-28.
However, not to be bogged down, Atanu responded quite well with three successive 10s of his own to unnerve Lee and draw level in the match by taking the second set 30-28.
The third set ended up being a tie before Lee nosed ahead by grabbing the fourth set.
In the decisive fifth set, Atanu and Lee were tied 19-19 after the first two shots. Lee managed a 9 off his final arrow and Atanu needed to go one better to take the match into a shoot-off.
But Atanu could only strike a 9, which was enough to tie the fifth set 28-28 but insufficient to save the match, The disappointed Indian could only rue the missed chances even as the exulted Korean celebrated his narrow escape.
India, thus, ended yet another medal-less campaign in archery at the Games as Laishram Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari and Laxmirani Majhi have already bowed out of contention after losing in both the women's team and individual events.
Atanu Das later said that the huge stage did create pressure but he will learn from his experience and try to do better next time around.
"Every match (competition) has its own pressure. Olympics obviously is the highest level. You have more pressure here. This was my first Olympics. I tried my best but could not succeed. Hope to do better the next time," said the Kolkatan.
Asked about the weather conditions, especially rain, he said they were the same and he did not want to trot it out as an excuse for his elimination.
"I do not want to give bad weather as an excuse. If it's the case then it would have affected everyone. I was fully prepared to give my best, be it a storm or downpour. I wanted to put up my best, and I gave my best.
"I don't want to blame anything. I gave my 100 percent and maybe it was not my day today. I missed a few arrows by whisker."
He agreed that the archery team had failed to live up to expectations.
"To get a medal from this Olympics was very important. Having failed in the past editions, everybody wanted us to win a medal from this Olympics. But now it's all over. We will see next time," he remarked.