India’s Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar faced a tough third round in the women’s golf event at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Friday.

The two Indian women’s golfers were tied for 14th place (T14) after the second round but struggled to maintain their momentum in the third. Aditi dropped 26 places to be placed T40 while Diksha slipped further down the order to T42.

Competing at the Golf National, Aditi, who was T13 on the opening day, carded a seven-over 79. India’s top-ranked women’s golfer, Aditi recorded seven bogies, a double bogey on the seventh hole and managed just two birdies.

Diksha Dagar, who had been riding high in seventh place after the opening day, carded a disastrous 8-over 80 in the third round. The 2021 Deaflympics gold medallist struggled to find her rhythm and hit five bogies and a triple bogey on the 15th hole after failing to card a single birdie.

Diksha and Aditi, both Tokyo Olympians, now face an uphill battle as they head into the final round on Saturday.

The women’s golf event at Paris 2024 features 60 golfers, who will compete over four days in four rounds. Each round consists of 18 holes.

At the top of the leaderboard, Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux, who shattered the Olympic record with an eight-under 28 on the front nine on Thursday, is tied for the lead after carding a one-under 71.

New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, who was third on Thursday, climbed to share the top spot after a solid four-under 68.

USA’s Rose Zhang fired a five-under 67 to join Japan’s Miyu Yamashita, who also scored a four-under 68, in the T3 spot.

Golf featured in the Olympic programme in 1900 and 1904 but was dropped from the itinerary after that. The sport made a return at Rio 2016 and has been part of the Olympics since.

India’s best finish in golf at the Olympics came at Tokyo 2020 when Aditi Ashok finished fourth, narrowly missing out on a medal.