Headlines at the Olympic Games are traditionally reserved for the Medalists, and while India's archers are yet to cover themselves in glory in London 2012, 27-year old Bombayla Devi Laishram did win herself plenty of fans at the Women's Archery event at Lord's today.

After narrowly winning her round of 64 tie against Evangelia Psarra of Greece 6-4, the Indian girl had her work cut out for her as she took on a very much in form Mexican in Aida Roman.

World no.1 Deepika Kumari of India struggled on the Opening Day of the Women's Archery Competition at the London Olympics, shooting a score of 662 in the ranking rounds, having to settle for 8th place. There was a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard with Koreans Bo Bae Ki and Lee Sung-jin both shooting 671s, where they were joined by Tan Ya-ting of Chinese Taipei. Bo topped the charts after the inner-10s were counted.

In the team event, the Koreans were miles out in front with a combined score of 1993, followed by the United States who shot 1979 to finish second. Chinese Taipei and Mexico were third and fourth respectively, crucial because the top 4 teams get direct entry into Sunday's elimination rounds.

Talk about the bow and the arrow and the first thing that strikes you is Indian Mythology - Drona, Arjuna, Karan, Eklavya and many more figures who are said to be masters of the art of Archery. Pity that none could participate in the either the Olympics or the Commonwealth Games. Historically, as evidenced by researchers, arrows existed 64,000 years back in South Africa in the Sibudu Caves. The arrows were previously launched by something called the Atlatl, which was eventually replaced by the Bow. The bow is believed to be conceived in the late Paleolithic or early Mesolithic period. Before the advent of the Gunpowder, Archers were the chief architects of combat. History suggests that civilizations had large troops of archers in their armed forces, which often proved decisive in wars.

The skill of propelling pointed sticks called arrows was predominantly a hunting technique besides being used in wars. The years when archers were used in warfare might be long gone now, with the development of firearms; but the skill has survived and still used in hunting and as a sport in various regions of the world. The sport of archery involves shooting arrows at a target with the assistance of a powerful bow. The target is usually circular consisting of concentric circles. The archers achieve high scores by shooting as close to the centre of the target as possible. The archer with the highest total of individual scores wins. The Olympic Games consist only of ‘Target' Archery where competitors need to shoot at a specific target from various distances. The other type of Archery is Field Archery where competitors shoot at different targets spread across a field or a course, from unknown distances. Field Archers use bows that look like the traditional ones.