Archer Deepika Kumari seals last-eight berth, ousts former world champion Russian Perova
Tokyo, Jul 30: World number one archer Deepika Kumari held her nerves to pip former world champion Ksenia Perova of the Russian Olympic Committee in a thrilling one-arrow shoot-off to advance to the women's individual quarterfinals of the Olympic Games here on Friday.
Locked 5-5 after the regulation five-setter, the 27-year-old Indian delivered a perfect 10, hitting the bull's eye, to topple the Russian, a team silver medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Starting off the one-arrow shoot-off, the Russian crumbled under pressure as she misfired a 7 while a composed Deepika sealed the issue 6-5 (10-7) without any fuss.
For the three-time Olympian Deepika, this was her first win from three matches against the 2017 world champion as she became the first Indian to make the last-eight in an individual event of the Olympics
In the quarterfinals, Deepika will face 20-year-old Korean top seed An San who bounced back from a set behind to oust local favourite Ren Hayakawa 6-4.
The Korean, who had broken a 25-year-old Olympic record en route to topping the ranking round, displayed incredible shooting of three 10s in her last three arrows to set up a clash against the Indian.
Deepika had faced the Korean once earlier, in the final of the 'Tokyo 2020 Test Event' at the same venue of Yumenoshima Park in 2019, and the Indian had lost to her younger opponent in straight sets.
"Now it's going to be tougher and tougher ahead," said Deepika, who is chasing the country's first ever Olympic medal in archery.
"I've to fight and shoot better. I hope to do better in the next round. Right now, I need extra focus.
"I can't win if I'm nervous. I'm trying my best to regain my touch as quickly as possible," Deepika said of her nervy outing against the Russian.
She had failed to close out after taking 4-2 and 5-3 lead in the third and fifth sets respectively.
"I'm really nervous. Yes, I started off well but it was all about Olympic pressure. It really became difficult (afterwards) to find the yellow-ring (that gives scores of either 9 or 10)."
Deepika had a flying start and raced to a 2-0 lead, drilling a perfect 10 in her second arrow as the experienced Russian faltered with a 7 in the last arrow to concede the set by three points (28-25).
Up 19-17 after two arrows in the second set, the Indian needed a 9 to take a 4-0 lead but only to misfire a 7 as the Russian gained control by one point (26-27) with a 10 for a 2-2 overall score.
It was some tight shooting from both archers from there on as Deepika edged out narrowly (28-27) courtesy a 10 in her first arrow.
A 10 eluded Deepika in the fourth set as both players hit an identical 9-8-9 to take the match to the fifth set with the Indian in the driver's set with a 5-3 lead.
But pressure got the better of Deepika once again as she could not capitalise her lead and misfired a 7 in her first arrow, conceding the set to her world number 8 opponent (25-28) to force a shoot-off after being 5-5.
Call it a stroke of luck or something else for Deepika, Perova misfired a 7 to start off the one-arrow shoot-off and the Indian held her nerves to seal the issue by hitting the bull's eye.
"I just tried to live in the present. I was very much relieved after she hit a 7. It definitely boosted my confidence," Deepika said of the shoot-off.
The sequence of the shoot-off follows the sequence of the start of the match, something that was chosen by the higher seed player.
Perova was a seed higher than Deepika who had finished ninth in the ranking round.
Deepika's husband Atanu Das is the only other Indian in contention for a medal as he made the pre-quarterfinals on Thursday with a stunning shoot-off win over two-time Olympic champion Oh Jin Hyek.
"Obviously it boosted my morale. The pressure gets divided," Deepika said of her husband as the duo are the first Indian couple to take part in the same discipline in the Games.
In his last-16 match slated on Saturday, Das will face home favourite Takaharu Furukawa, an individual silver medallist at the 2012 Olympics and a team bronze winner here.
Indian men's team and mixed team were earlier knocked out by the Koreans in their respective quarterfinals.
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Mysuru: Man serves jail time for wife's 'murder'; she resurfaces alive in court
Mysuru, Apr 04 (PTI): A court here, taking serious note of lapses on the part of the police, has ordered the Superintendent of Police to submit a complete report before April 17 in connection with a case in which a woman, allegedly murdered by her husband in 2020, has now appeared before it—alive.
This comes even as Suresh, the husband of the woman named Mallige, had spent almost one-and-a-half years in jail on murder charges.
The case pertains to the arrest and imprisonment of Suresh, aged about 38, who had lodged a complaint in December 2020 stating that his wife Mallige had gone missing from Kushalnagar in the Kodagu district.
Subsequently, the police found the skeleton of a woman in Bettadarapura and filed a charge sheet in court, alleging that the skeleton belonged to Mallige and that Suresh had murdered her. He was then jailed.
On April 1, Mallige was found in Madikeri by a friend of Suresh, who saw her with another man.
The matter was brought to the notice of the Fifth Additional District and Sessions Court, and she was subsequently produced before the court.
Taking serious note of the police's lapses, the court on Thursday directed the SP to submit a complete report on the case by April 17.
Speaking to reporters, Suresh's advocate, Pandu Poojari said, "Suresh, who is from a village in Kushalnagar, had lodged a complaint in 2020 at the Kushalnagar Rural Police Station regarding his wife's disappearance. Around the same time, a skeleton was found within the Bettadarapura police station limits. A year later, Bettadarapura police arrested Suresh, alleging that he had killed his wife over an illicit affair. A case was registered against him."
The police had sent the skeleton for a DNA test along with blood samples from Mallige’s mother.
"Even before the DNA report came, the police filed the final charge sheet in court. Later, though he got bail, the DNA test report that eventually came showed a mismatch," he said.
When a discharge application was filed citing the DNA mismatch, the court did not accept it and asked for witness examination, including that of Mallige’s mother and villagers.
"Everyone deposed before the court that she was alive and had eloped with someone. The court questioned the Kushalnagar and Bettadarapura police about the loopholes in the charge sheet, but they defended their investigation and maintained that the skeleton belonged to Mallige and that Suresh had murdered her," the advocate said.
Meanwhile, on April 1, Mallige was found at a hotel in Madikeri, having a meal with a man. She was spotted by Suresh’s friend, who is also a witness named in the charge sheet.
She was taken to the Madikeri police station, following which an "advancement application" was filed before the district judge's court.
"The court, treating the matter seriously, asked police to produce her immediately. She was then presented in court. When questioned, she admitted to eloping and marrying another man. She said she was unaware of what had happened to Suresh. She had been living in a village named Shettyhalli, just 25–30 km from Madikeri, but police made no effort to trace her," he added.
Calling this a very serious and rare case, the advocate said the key questions before the court now are: whose skeleton was it, and why did the police file a false charge sheet?
"The court had summoned the SP and the investigating officers in the case, but they had no answers to offer. It has now directed the SP to file a complete report on the lapses before April 17 before delivering the judgment declaring Suresh innocent," he said.
Stating that he is awaiting the court’s final order, the advocate said that once it is issued, he will file a writ petition in the High Court regarding the trauma his client endured and against the police for filing a false case against him.
"I will seek justice and compensation for my client. We will also approach the Human Rights Commission and the ST Commission, as Suresh is a poor man from the ST community," he said.
Further, he added there should be a probe into the skeleton case and whether there was a conspiracy by the police to close both cases by naming Suresh as the accused.
