Archery
Explained: Why was Dhiraj Bommadevara eliminated despite shooting 10?
Indian archer Dhiraj Bommadevara was eliminated from Paris Olympics despite shooting perfect 10.
Promising Indian archer Dhiraj Bommadevara was smiling and exchanging greetings with his opponent after a heartbreaking loss in the round of 32 of the men's archery individual event on Tuesday.
Playing the world championship medallist Eric Peters of Canada, Dhiraj started well to take the lead and won the first round.
Eric drew level 2-2 in the second round. Dhiraj responded by scoring 29 and made it 4-2 in the third round.
In the fourth round, both archers shot a perfect 30 to make it 5-3 in favour of Dhiraj. In the next round, Dhiraj shot 29 but Eric shot 30 to make it 5-5 forcing a shoot-off.
In the shoot-off, both archers again shot 10 but Eric was declared the winner as his arrow was closer to the center.
Similarly today in the women's elimination first round, Indian archer Deepika Kumari won her match against Reena Parnat of Estonia by closer to centre rule.
In the shoot-off, Deepika shot eight and Reena also shot eight. Since, Deepika's shot was closer to the centre she won the match to progress to the next round.
What is 'closer to the centre rule' in archery?
As per World Archery, if the shoot-off is also tied, then the arrow which is closer to centre will be considered the winner.
Per Rule 32.2.6.6 of World Archery - "In the event of a tie for points or score to determine group ranking there shall be a shoot-off. Both athletes shall simultaneously shoot one end of three arrows on their own set of target faces on the same buttress."
And if the shoot-off is also tied then as per World Archery, the arrow closer to the centre circle will get one point and play in the next round.
In Dhiraj's case, the Indian debutant lost by a mere 2.4 cm, the width of a coffee bean. And such are the margins between victory and defeat at the Olympics.