IANS

Kolkata, Aug 6: Indian men's recurve team of Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh Champia finished overall third in the World Cup archery (Stage IV) which began at China's Shanghai Wednesday.

With the Indians putting up their least impressing showing of the four World Cup meets held so far, best individual placing was 10th by Talukdar with a total of 1,324 points in the FITA qualification round, according to information received here.

The three gave India a total of 3,941 points which placed the country third overall behind Korea (4,044) and France (3,953). India will take on 14th placed Ukraine in the first round.

Banerjee finished 18th with a total of 1,313 and Champia was 24th with 1,304 points.

Oh Jin Hyek of Korea topped the individual qualifier with 1,366 points. Lee Chang Hwan, also of Korea, was second with 1,351 and Chen Wenyuan of China was third with 1,338.

Talukdar, who is all set to qualify for the four-man World Cup finals at Copenhagen in Denmark Sep 26, had qualified to the meet proper by finishing 12th at Santo Domingo, second at Porec and sixth at Antalya in the previous three meets.

Banerjee had ended first, seventh and third respectively while Champia had stood second, sixth and 19th in the previous three tournaments' qualifiers.

In the FITA round qualifier at Shanghai's Yuan Shen Stadium, Talukdar did badly in the 50m event finishing 42nd (321/360) while getting the fourth slot (315) in the 90m, eighth (333) in the 70m and sixth (355) in the 30m events.

Banerjee excelled in the 70m occupying fifth position (335) and seventh in the 50m event (334). He, however, did not measure up in the 90m - where he was placed 38th (296) - and 40th in 30m (348).

Champia, the lone male from India to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, has been slipping in each meet. At Antalya he was 19th overall and at Shanghai he went down further in ranking to 24th.

He was 36th in 90m (297), 10th in 70m (333), 49th in 50m (319) and eighth in 30m (355). Had form played true, India would have stayed at second spot in the team standing.

The third place finish in the team event meant the Indian team would be drawn at the bottom half of the draw thus avoiding meeting top seed and favourite Korea before the final.