Uttar Pradesh stunned a star-studded Railways in a keenly-fought semifinal match to make it to the recurve men’s team final in the National archery championship at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Saturday.
In Sunday’s title clash, Uttar Pradesh will challenge Jharkhand which got past Madhya Pradesh in the other semifinal.
Jharkhand gave a commanding performance to be in the women’s and mixed team finals as well.
The Uttar Pradesh men’s team, however, thrilled its supporters by causing the big upset.
Spirited showIn the last four contest, the UP side — comprising Atul Verma, Sumit, Chaman Singh and Vijay Kumar — gave a spirited performance to catch up with Railways — Mangal Singh Champia, Rahul Banerjee, Kapil and Adonda Raju — which was leading 4-2 at one stage.
In the tie-shoot, the UP archers gathered 29 points while Railways crumbled under pressure to manage just 23.
Last year’s champion Services were shown the door 3-5 by a low ranked Chhattisgarh in the pre-quarterfinals.
The top-ranked Railways women’s side, including Laxmi Rani Majhi, Rimil Burily, L. Bombayala Devi and Dola Banerjee, sailed smoothly to set up a summit clash with defending champion Jharkhand in the team event.
Jharkhand, also the mixed team title holder, banked on its experienced duo of Jayanta Talukdar and Deepika Kumari to assure itself a berth in the final against Manipur.
In the individual ranking round, Champia and Deepika claimed the top spots in men's and women's sections respectively.
Consequently, they also won the 70+70m gold medals.
The results:
Recurve: Men: 70+70m: 1. Mangal Singh Champia 672; 2. Sanjay Boro 664 (x 33); 3. Jayanta Talukdar 664 (x 27).
Team: Semifinals: Uttar Pradesh bt Railways 4-4 (tie-shoot 29-23); Jharkhand bt Madhya Pradesh 5-3.
Quarterfinals: Railways bt Rajasthan 6-0; Uttar Pradesh bt Chhattisgarh 5-3; Jharkhand bt ITBP 6-2; Madhya Pradesh bt Assam 4-4 (tie-shoot 27-26).
Women: 70+70m: 1. Deepika Kumari 648; 2. Laxmi Rani Majhi 642; 3. Rimil Buruily 640.
Team: Semifinals: Railways bt Punjab 6-0; Jharkhand bt SPSB 6-0.
Quarterfinals: Railways bt ITBP 5-1; Punjab bt Manipur 6-0; SPSB bt Assam 4-4 (tie-shoot 28-23); Jharkhand bt West Bengal 6-2.