The Indian women's recurve archery team of Deepika Kumari, Laxmirani Majhi and Rimil Buriuly had to settle for the silver as they lost the World Championship final 4-5 to Russia in an edge-of-the-seat encounter at the Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen on Sunday.
The Russian team comprising Inna Stepanova, Ksenia Perova and Tuyana Dashidarorzhieva clinched the contest in a nerve-wrecking tie-breaker which ended 28-27 in their favour.
The Indian trio were quick to get off the blocks to claiming the first set 56-54. They were again steady in the second set to clinch it 54-53 and thus a 4-0 lead.
The Russian team took their own sweet time and slowly got into their groove to pocket two 10 pointers in the third set when they needed it the most to edge past the Indians. They claimed the third 56-52 to come back into the contest at 2-4.
The Indians failed to respond and crumbled under pressure in the fourth set as they hit scores of six, seven and eight. The total they amassed was 50 which was easily surpassed by their rivals to then levelled at 4-4, taking the match into the tie-breaker.
The decider turned out to be a thrilling contest as India's 10 was matched with another 10 points from Russia. But an eight-pointer cost India the match as the Russian trio hit two back-to-back nines to clinch the contest and the gold medal.
