Archery’s agonisingly tiny margin in Dhiraj’s exit
What spelt his loss was 2.4 cm, in a sport where even a minor finger twitch while releasing the arrow can cost you
Bengaluru: The margins in archery. The tiny, annoying margins.
It was down to a shoot-off between India’s Dhiraj Bommadevara and Canada’s Eric Peters in the Round of 32. They both had to hit a 10. Whoever hit the arrow closest to the centre (X) would go through.
Dhiraj went first, his heart rate at a steady 87 bpm. He hit a 10. Peters went next, his arrow too landed in the 10. As it turned out, the Canadian’s arrow was closer to the centre. The margin of Dhiraj’s loss: 2.4 cm. This, after the Indian shot 10s in 6 out of his 7 last arrows in this match on Tuesday.
While it can look like a piece of cake on TV, the target face is 122 centimetres in diameter, the 10-ring is 12.2 centimetres in diameter, and within it the dead centre lies the X. Archers stand 70m away from the target. To put this into perspective, the length of a football field is between 100-110m. Essentially the distance between an archer and target is roughly 3/4ths of a football field.
“The bow has to move in the direction of the X, and the release also has to move in the direction of the line of arrow, in the direction of the X. Both have to move at least 2 mm in the direction of the X. Even if there’s a 0.01 percent error in the finger release, the arrow will not land on X,” explains Sanjeeva Singh, an archery Dronacharya awardee. The idea being that forces align.
“Now we are at a juncture where in recurve, we have to shoot like in the compound archery (in which bows are a lot more mechanical, with a complex pulley system). Hitting the yellow (9s, 10s) is not enough. You have to be able to hit the dead centre. Of course, it’s a lot more difficult since unlike in compound there is a good chunk of manual intervention in recurve.
It’s just sad to see Dhiraj go out the way he did. He was one of our best hopes.”
In contrast to Dhiraj’s fortunes, India’s Deepika Kumari was in for a slice of luck. In the round of 64, she won a shoot-off with an 8. Her Estonian opponent Reena Parnat too shot an eight. Deepika’s arrow though was closer to the centre (123.3mm) as opposed to that of Parnat’s (146.7mm).
The Indian was in for some more luck in the next round after her Dutch opponent Quinty Roeffen shot a zero – her arrow landed outside the 10 concentric circles. It’s not the most common sight at the major events. Deepika saw herself through to the Round of 16 in the individual competition. She struck only three 10s in 12 arrows against Roeffen, but on the day it was enough. She’s the second Indian female archer in the quarterfinals, after Bhajan Kaur. Deepika next faces world No.13 Michelle Kroppen. Sterner tests await.
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