RI archers misfire in Games contest

Primastuti Handayani , The Jakarta Post , Beijing | Sun, 08/10/2008 10:27 AM | Sports

Indonesian female archers Ika Yuliana Rochmawati and Rina Dewi Puspitasari finished 41 and 42 respectively in the women's recurve individual ranking round at the Beijing Olympic Green Archery Field on Saturday.

The archers had aimed to finish in the top 32.

Ika, whose FITA (International Archery Federation) world ranking is 236, scored 621 points and will challenge world number 10 Jennifer Nichols of the Unites States in Tuesday's elimination round.

"I tried my best. I tried hard enough in the second half to keep earning the same points as in the first half but my performance declined," she said after the game.

Ika fired 36 arrows in the first half to score 313 and finish 38 of 64 competitors. However, in the second half, she only managed to score 308, finishing 45. In total, she scored 621 points.

Ika said she had felt nervous competing in her first major competition.

Meanwhile Rina, who has a FITA ranking of 81, shot 620, and will meet Russian Miroslava Dagbaeva, ranked 34 in the next round.

"I lacked focus and self confidence," she said. "Of course, I was dissatisfied with the result."

Rina scored 317 points in the first half to finish 33 but slumped in the second half, shooting 303 and finishing 52. She scored a total of 620 points.

In Athens four years ago, she finished 46 in the women's individual ranking round with a 72-arrow score of 616. In the first elimination round, she faced Nichols and lost an 18-arrow match 160 to 141.

Coach I Gusti Ayu Putu Wulan Budisetiani said the results were unexpected.

"Usually, they perform better in the second half. But today, they didn't perform as usual. Their performances tended to get worse in the second half," she said.

"With such results, we have a lot of homework to do to get through the elimination round.

The national archers' scores were far from the Olympic record of 673 points set by Ukraine's Lina Herasymenko at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Since modern archery was first staged at the Olympics in 1972, Indonesia has won just one medal, with trio Lilies Handayani, Nurfitriyana Lantang and Kusuma Wardhani picking up silver in the women's team competition at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.