Reena Kumari enters third round in archery
August 18, 2004

ATHENS: Twenty-year old Reena Kumari began the fourth day of the Olympic games competition for India on a winning note as she moved into the third round of the women's archery event pipping Bhutan's Tshering Chhoden in the shoot out 7-4 here on Tuesday. 

Both the archers were tied at 134 at the end of six rounds and that forced the shoot out in which the Indian was lucky to emerge as winner. 

Reena, who had beaten Kristine Eseuba of Georgia 153-149 in the first round, had to battle it out against a very determined Bhutanese girl and it was only in the shoot out that the Indian managed to come through. 

The early morning conditions at the Panathinaiko stadium were not very conducive but still it was expected that the Indian will have no problem against the 24-year old Chhoden but that was not to be. 

Chhoden gave jitters to Reena in the first round itself in which she established a big ten-point lead. The Bhutanese girl earned 29 points, hitting two ten pointers and a nine pointer in her first round. The Indian, on the other hand, had a round of 19 (7,6,6). 

Chhoden maintained the lead in the second round where she shot 21 points(7,6,8) and Reena came up with a score of 22 (7,8,7). 

However, it was a disastrous third round for the Bhutanese girl as she shot only 16(9,7) while missing a target and that enabled Reena close the gap. The Indian, in this round, totalled 21 (7,7,7). 

Reena's fourth round score was 25 (9,7,9) and she managed to draw parity with her rival who shot 21 in this round (7,7,7). 

With score showing 87-87, there was tension in the air but still the Bhutanese archer kept her cool and troubled the Indian till the end. 

Chhoden again took a three-point lead in the fifth round in which she collected 24 points (9,8,7) as against Reena's 21 (9,5,7). 

However, in the crucial last round, Reena managed to level with Chhoden as she scored 26 (9,8,9) while her rival had 23 (9,9,5). With both archers tied at the same score of 134, shoot out was applied and the Indian pipped her determined rival 7-4. 

Interestingly, Reena was out of action for more than a year after she could not continue her practice for want of money and she returned only in 2002 to resume practice. 

Reena has a tough next round on Wednesday when she takes on sixth ranked Chinese Taipei's Shu Chi Yuan. 

Yuan defeated Malgorzata Sobieraj (Poland) 158-149 in another second round match.

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