Indian archer Atanu Das on Thursday proved a point by knocking out two-time Olympic champion Oh Jin Hyek to join his wife Deepika Kumari in individual pre-quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics.
Das, who had lost his place to rookie Pravin Jadhav in the fancied mixed team event after slipping to 35th place in the ranking round on Friday, showed nerves of steel to edge out the legendary Korean in a one-arrow shoot-off.
The individual Olympic champion from London 2012 and a team gold medallist here, Oh started the shoot-off with a 9 as Das delivered a perfect 10, hitting the bull’s eye to seal the issue 6-5 (10-9) in an extraordinary fashion.
Earlier in the day, Das saw off a tough challenge from Chinese Taipei’s Deng Yu-Cheng to win 6-4 from being locked 4-4.
Chasing India’s first ever Olympic medal in archery, Deepika and Das, who are the first Indian couple to take part in the same discipline in the Games, are the only two Indians left in fray.
Deepika has been pitted against Russian world no 8 Ksenia Perova, a team silver medallist at Rio 2016 and a former world champion in her pre-quarters on Friday, while Das will face home favourite Takaharu Furukawa, an individual silver medallist at London Olympics and a team bronze winner here in the last-16 clash on Saturday.
The mixed team and men’s team had made quarterfinal exits on Saturday, while the Army duo of Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav lost out in their respective last-32 matches on Wednesday.
Returning to action a week after the ‘break up’ with Deepika Kumari for the mixed pair event, Das showed amazing resilience as he bounced back from being 2-4 down to edge out the 39-year-old Korean great by the thinnest of margins.
Incidentally, Das had beaten Oh earlier too in the shoot-off for a bronze medal in the Asian Championships in Bangkok in 2019.
But dealing with the utmost pressure and to win at the biggest stage of the Olympics was something “more special”.
“Yahan pe dimaag chala raha tha, dil nahin. (Obviously there was a lot of pressure but I just tried to maintain my focus and didn’t listen to my heart),” Das said after the win.
“We all know he is an Olympic champion and how great he’s… Every match in the Olympics is like a final, so it feels more special.”
On his 2019 match-up, Das said: “It was quite a tense moment, I just maintained my nerves. It was about handling the situation better in that particular moment.
“I came to know that he is going to shoot first and he delivered a 9… I knew I’ve to either shoot a 10 or go out of the competition. I gave it a shot and won the match.”