Olympian Bombayla Devi was the cynosure of all eyes as she not only topped the recurve ranking round with 658 points, seven points ahead of Deepika Kumari, but also powered Railways to the final with a resounding performance in the 36th National archery championship on Saturday.
Railways, with Rimil Buruily and Laxmi Rani Majhi firing telling blows, along with Bombayla, did find its match in Punjab in the semifinals, but pulled through, winning the tie-break, to set up a repeat title clash with Jharkhand.
Railways did make the men’s final as well, with Mangal Singh Champia, Rahul Banerjee and Dhaniram Basumatary pulling their weight to cruise past Services, Himachal and Punjab.
The results: Recurve: Men: Ranking round: 1. Jayanta Talukdar (SPSB) 673; 2. Tarundeep Rai (Skm) 672 (32x); 3. Sonam Palden Lepcha (Meg) 672 (29x).
Team: Semifinals: Haryana bt Madhya Pradesh 6-0; Railways bt Services 6-2. Quarterfinals: Haryana bt Meghalaya 5-1; Madhya Pradesh bt Delhi 5-3; Railways bt UP 6-2; Services bt Himachal Pradesh 6-2. Pre-quarterfinals: Haryana bt Jharkhand 6-4; Meghalaya bt Rajasthan 6-0; Madhya Pradesh bt Maharashtra 6-0; Delhi bt Assam 6-2; UP bt Gujarat 6-0; Railways bt Punjab 5-1; Services bt BSF; Himachal Pradesh bt SPSB 5-3.
Women: Ranking round: 1. Bombayla Devi (Rlys) 658; 2. Deepika Kumari (Jha) 651; 3. Rimil Buruily (Rlys) 647.
Team: Semifinals: Railways bt Punjab 5-3; Jharkhand bt Maharashtra 6-0. Quarterfinals: Railways bt Gujarat 6-0; Punjab bt Assam 5-1; Maharashtra bt SPSB 6-2; Jharkhand bt CRPF 6-0. Pre-quarterfinals: Railways bt Kerala 6-0; Gujarat bt Chandigarh 6-4; Assam bt West Bengal 5-3; Punjab bt Telangana 6-0; Maharashtra bt Delhi 6-2; SPSB bt ITBP 5-1; CRPF bt UP 6-4; Jharkhand bt Manipur 6-0.
