Hyderabad, Oct 15 (IANS) With the bottom-placed Chola Chiefs setting the tone, it turned out to be the day of the chasing teams in Season 2 of the Archery Premier League (APL) as top teams – Mighty Marathas, Kakatiya Knights and Prithviraaj Yodhas – all suffered defeats on Day 8 of the competition on Thursday.
Mighty Marathas and Kakatiya Knights began the day on 10 points and within touching distance of a place in the playoffs but came up against a determined Rajputana Royals and Chero Archers, respectively. The Royals won 6-2 while Chero clean-swept the Knights 6-0.
But the first match turned out to be the best, as struggling Chola Chiefs managed to end a run of five straight defeats as they beat Prithviraaj Yodhas in a thriller that went into the Hit-or-Miss Shoot-off after a 4-4 draw in regulation time.
For Chiefs, Colombia’s Alejandra Usquiano and India’s Yuktha Sri Kondapavuluri managed to land their arrows into the golden X-ring in the tiebreak that registered as hits while the rest of the archers scored misses for a 2-0 scoreline.
The Chiefs had been struggling for a win since the second day of the tournament but were able to stop the slump on Day 8, with just a couple of matches left in the round-robin phase. The win could have been even more comfortable as they won the first two sets and had a fairly simple equation to win the third too when their recurve archers Yuktha Sri and Marcus D’Almeida landed the arrows into the 7-ring.
The Yodhas, led by a superb X from Gatha Khadake, clinched the final set and it looked like Chiefs were about to collapse from a comfortable position. But in the tiebreaker, Usquiano laid down the marker with a brilliant X for a Hit. In fact, the Colombian compound archer finished the match with 80 out of 80 in regulation time for one of the best individual performances of this season in the APL.
The win keeps Chiefs’ chances of a top-four finish alive by taking them to four points while Yodhas stay on eight points.
Archery Premier League (APL), the world’s first franchise-based archery league, is initiated by the Archery Association of India and comprises six teams and a total of 48 archers, with 36 Indians and 12 elite international stars. The league, taking place at People’s Plaza in Hyderabad, will culminate on October 18 with the grand finale.
The second season of APL will also have a new playoffs format that rewards teams finishing higher in the league standings and ensures competitive fairness. The sides that finish first and second will have two shots at qualifying for the grand final on Sunday, while the teams finishing third and fourth will face off in Eliminator 1 on the penultimate day (October 17) after the regular schedule of three matches. The winner of that clash will proceed to Eliminator 2. On Sunday, the two top sides will meet in the Short-cut Decider, with the winner reaching the title clash and the loser facing the winner of Eliminator 2 to decide the second finalist.
In the second match, Marathas were off to a nightmare start as they were unable to shoot their 8th arrow in both the first and second sets, with Alejandra Valencia and Mrinal Chauhan caught by time pressure. While they bounced back to take the third set, Royals emerged 6-2 winners, with Tokyo Olympic champion Mete Gazoz showing his class with the last arrow for 10, shooting with barely any time left.
In the final match, Knights missed the services of red-hot Neeraj Chauhan as his recurve backup Rohit Kumar started off with a 6, before recovering to shoot well for the rest of the match. Chero Archers, however, were steady from the start, led by another sensational performance by Atanu Das and compound world No. 1 Mathias Fullerton.
India’s Asian Games medallists in archery – who are all part of the six teams at the APL second season – were in Delhi on Thursday to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On Friday, the first match will see defending champions Rajputana Royals face off against Chola Chiefs, who are languishing at the bottom of the table. The second match will see Prithviraaj Yodhas take on local franchise Kakatiya Knights. In the final match, Mighty Marathas take on Chero Archers.
BEST ARCHERS OF THE DAY (Rs 1 lakh reward each):
Recurve male: Atanu Das (Chero)
Recurve female: Sangeeta (Royals)
Compound male: Ojas Deotale (Royals)
Compound female: Alejandra Usquiano (Chiefs)
SCORES — DAY 8:
Match 1: Chola Chiefs 4-4 (76-72, 78-77, 73-75, 74-77) Prithviraaj Yodhas. Chiefs won the Hit-or-Miss Shoot-off 2-0
Match 2: Rajputana Royals 6-2 (77-65, 75-66, 73-76, 77-74) Mighty Marathas
Match 3: Chero Archers 6-0 (76-73, 77-76, 75-74) Kakatiya Knights
–IANS
bsk/