Rajesh Hasdak, Satyadev Prasad and Skalzang Dorji scored superb victories in the first round to reach the pre-quarter-final of the 18-arrow knockout elimination round before going down to lesser known opponents. All the four Indian archers, including Mangal Singh, had come through the qualifying round over four distances (90M, 70M, 50M, 30M) to emerge in the top 32 and make it to the elimination stage.

In the team event tomorrow, India meet Chinese Taipei in the first round. In the elimination Olympic round over 70 metres, where the archers shoot 18 arrows in a one-to-one contest, the 20-year-old Satyadev Prasad stunned 1994 Hiroshima gold medallist Vadim Shikarev of Kazakhstan 156-154 in the first round before his inabilityto find bulls-eye saw him go down 155-165 against Wu Tsung Yi of Chinese Taipei.

The Meerut-based Prasad took a five point lead after the first round of six arrows against the Kazakh and had a breakup of 50-45, 51-56 and 55-53 in winning, but a poor first round saw him slide to defeat against Tsung Yi with the round scores reading 49-55, 52-54, 54-56. Hasdak, who had the poorest ranking in the qualifying stage, hit the bulls-eye six times stunning 70m world record holder Hiroshi Yamamoto of Japan 160-158 (53-52, 54-52, 53-54) in the opening round in the morning, but failed to sparkle again and fell to Japanese Wataru Haraguchi at 149-152 (49-48, 50-50, 50-54) after leading at the end of the first round.

Dorji maintained a one-point leeway he gained after the second round in beating Hironobu Suegushi of Japan 162-161 (55-55, 52-51, 55-55) before losing by two points to China's Tang Hua, who beat teenager Mangal Singh in the first round. Dorji had the advantage of three points after the two series of 12arrows, but the pressure got to him as he failed to produce his best in the third set of six to lose 159-161 (56-55, 53-51, 50-55).

Dorji had two tens each in the first two rounds, but he could achieve only three rounds of nines. Mangal Singh, the least experienced among the Indians, lost 145-166 to Hua after being level in the first round.