Kolkata: The Indian recurve women's team had to be satisfied with the silver after a 207-210 loss to Italy in the final of the World Archery Championship at Turin on Sunday.
The team, comprising Deepika Kumari, Chekrovolu Swuro and Laishram Bombayla Devi, had a one point lead at the half way stage from where the former world champions took charge and won.
Their maiden entry into the final did weigh heavily on the minds of the Indians.
The presence of Deepika, the reigning world cadet individual champion, failed to inspire the Indians as the three shot a very poor third end for a score of 50 points out of 60.
The Italians turned the table on their rivals with a fine round of 55 that not only neutralised India's one point lead but gave the Europeans a whopping four-point lead.
The Indians had the best round of 54 in the final end, yet fell short by three points as the Italians celebrated the world title.
The Indians' shooting order was Deepika, Chekrovolu and Bombayla.
According to reports received from Turin, the two teams appeared quite nervous and shots by the six competitors were not as fluent as usual. After the first end, the scores for each team were quite low, 51-50 for the Indians.
The first 10 by Italy was scored at their tenth shot but with two arrows out of the yellow in the second end, they still trailed by one at the halfway mark (102-103).
After two opening 8s by Guendalina Sartori and Jessica Tomasi to start the third end, the former world champion Natalia Valeeva showed the way to her teammates with a 10.
The Italians were back on track with 10-9-10 after that. As their opponents Deepika, Swuro and Bombayla only had a 50-point series at that time, the local team reversed the score to lead by four (157-153).
Tension was at its peak in the last end. Before the last three arrows, the Indian team came back to three points and even two points after the Italian Sartori scored an 8.
The last but one arrow was a 9 for each team and the gap remained. As Bombayla finished with another 9 for her team, Valeeva needed an 8 to win. The experienced Italian thudded a 10 to give gold to Italy (210-207).
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