Indian archer Atanu Das has entered the men’s individual quarterfinals with a 139-135 win over Cuba’s Adrian Andres Puentes Perez at the Rio Olympics.
In a thrilling best of five sets encounter, Das edged out his opponent 28-26, 29-26, 26-27, 27-28, 29-28 at the Sambodromo.
Das, the only Indian male archer at Rio, grabbed a two sets lead hitting three perfect 10 shots out of his first six attempts when Adrian managed two. But the Cuban staged a turnaround hitting two consecutive 10s in the fourth set two make it two sets each.
But in the all important final set, Das kept his focus intact and hit two successive 10s to confirm the contest in his favour.
Das will next face South Korea’s Seungyun Lee in the 1/8 Eliminators on Friday.
Earlier on Tuesday, Das beat Nepal’s Jitbahadur Muktan 88-76 in the pre-quarterfinals. Das began on a booming note, winning the first three of the best of five sets 29-26, 29-24, 30-26 . He started hitting two perfect 10s out of his first three shots in the first set. JitBahadur only managed one perfect 10 score in the first round.
Das maintained his good start in the second set, again hitting two 10s to pile up the pressure on his Nepali competitor. Das kept his best for the third and final set as he hit bull’s eye thrice to close out the match with three perfect 10 shots. Das scored a total of 683 points to enter the Round of 32 in a creditable fifth place.
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