Indian women finish third in World Archery meet

Rimil Buriuly and Dola Banerjee propelled Indian women's recurve team to finish third behind Russia and world champions Korea in the Archery World Cup Stage IV in Shanghai on Thursday.

The Indian trio of Rimil, Dola and Pratima Boro enabled India to score a total of 3974 points and lie behind Russian Federation (4007) and Korea (4100), according to information received from the Archery Association of India (AAI).

India will lock horns with 14th-ranked Kazakhstan in the first round of the team elimination on August 8.

Eighteen-year-old Rimil from the Tata Archery Academy totalled 1344 points in the FITA round qualification to achieve a sixth rank.

Junior international and a team silver medal winner at the 2008 youth world championship in Turkey, Rimil came into the senior side early this year as the fourth member of the Indian side and travelled to Dominican Republic for the first World Cup.

Rimil shot 334 points over the 70m distance and was surprised to find herself placed second overall behind Korean Yun Ok-Hee (336).

The Korean, however, set a world record in the next distance (60m) with a score of 353 which bettered her compatriot Kim Yu-Mis score of 351 set in 2004.

Veteran Dola Banerjee was placed 11th overall with a score of 1331 and the Railway employee emerged the fifth best in the 30m distance with a score of 353.

Pratima failed to live up to her potential and finished 31st with a total of 1299, while the fourth member, Reena Kumari, was one place behind with 1298.

FITA round qualifications were held over four distances 70m, 60, 50 and 30m with each archer allowed to shoot 36 arrows over each distance for a total of 144 arrows.