The 29th sub-junior national archery championship was supposed to be a cakewalk for Pawan Xalxo. Xalxo is ranked 13th in the country at the moment, and the 16-year-old rivals here, who have had little experience, should have posed no threat to his stature of being the rising star of Indian archery.

But loss of form at crucial junctures, coupled with confidence issues, have stopped his victory flight from taking off at the Hansraj College grounds. He could only win a bronze, and that too in the team recurve. With no individual medal, Xalxo is understandably upset. “I lost,” he said, when quizzed about his performance on the concluding day. “I got a bronze in the team event.I never thought this would happen. I was confident of winning gold in all the categories here. I am disappointed at the results,” Xalxo added.

For two days, the diminutive archer from Lohardagga has been searching for answers for his bad show here, after finishing 13th in the nationals trails in Kolkata few months back. “I can’t explain what happened here,” he admitted, an injured wrist adding to his problems. “I sprained my wrist yesterday. That was also at the back of my mind and I couldn’t do well,” he said. “This was my first and last sub-junior nationals as I will now graduate to the junior ranks,” he said.

Most importantly, he was down on confidence. “Pawan has a stiff wrist, may be that explains his confidence issues,” Dronacharya awardee Sanjeeva Singh said on the sidelines. On Tuesday, the lack of confidence affected his team’s performance as well as he shot a seven point arrow, when a ten could have forced a tie for silver. That was the breaking point for the 16-year-old, who has pledged to work on the mental aspect of his game, before taking on the best in Indian archery at the senior nationals in Agartala. “Hopefully I’ll get more medals there,” he signed off.

Tuesday’s results
Recurve
Olympic round, girls: Gold: Deepika Kumari (SPSB), silver: Sumita Kumari (SPSB), bronze: K Jyothi (AP); boys: Gold: Atanu Das (SPSB), silver: Hemant Basumatary (SAI), bronze: Raj Govind Swansi (SSCB)

Team event girls: Gold: SPSB, silver: SAI, bronze: Jharkhand; boys: Gold: SSCB, silver: Jharkhand, bronze: SPSB

Compound
Olympic round, girls: Gold: Sarikonda Jayalaxmi (Mah), silver: Prerna Bhagat (Jah), bronze: Harsha Bhardwaj (Jah); boys: Gold: Abhyudaya Srinet (Jah), silver: Arjun Rao (Jah), bronze: Ritul Chaterjee (AP)