Mumbai: Bombayla Devi Laishram, the most experienced archer from India, entered the pre-quarter finals of Women’s Individual Archery Event on the Day 6 of the Rio Olympics after beating Laurence Baldauff of Austria in the round of 64 and Lin Shih-chia of China in round of 32 in Brazil on Wednesday.
In the round of 64, Bombayla came back from one set down to knock Laurence out in the sets to come. She went ahead and won the next three sets by a fairly good score margin to cement her place in the round of 16.
In the round of 32, Bombayla successfully won the first two sets by mustering a sizeable lead. But in the third, she lost to Lin, giving her opponent a chance to make a comeback.
But the opponent’s joy was short-lived as in the fourth set, Bombayla was back with a bang and with scores of 10, 9 and 9, to draw the curtains.
Backed by experience, Bombayla Devi showed nerves of steel to down the Austrian a inch closer to the podium, which is still untouched by the Indian athletes participating in the Rio 2016 Olympics.