Indian archers fail to secure Olympic team quotas, make quarter-final exit at World Championships | More sports News

NEW DELHI: The Indian archers participating in the World Championships in Berlin faced disappointment on Wednesday as they failed to secure team quota places for the Paris Olympics.

Both the men’s and women’s recurve teams reached the quarter-finals but were unable to secure a top-three finish, which would have granted them Olympic quota spots.
In the men’s recurve event, the Indian team consisting of Dhiraj Bommadevara, Rajat Chauhan, and Tushar Shelke faced a tough challenge against arch-rivals Korea and lost 1-5 in the quarter-finals. Despite putting up a valiant effort, they were unable to overcome the Korean team’s strong performance.

The women’s recurve team, comprising Bhajan Kaur, Ankita Bhakat, and Simranjeet Kaur, also reached the quarter-finals but faced a defeat against the Netherlands. They had a promising start, taking the opening set and going 2-0 up, but unfortunately, they lost the next three sets, resulting in a 2-6 loss to the Netherlands.
With the team events concluded, India’s last hope to secure quota places for the Paris Olympics will now rest on the individual events. The individual competitions will commence on Thursday, and the Indian archers will be aiming to perform well and secure their places in the upcoming Olympics.
While the team results were not as desired, the Indian archers will be determined to put up a strong performance in the individual events and keep their hopes alive for representing their country at the Paris Olympics.

Army man Bommadevara will be the biggest hope, having grabbed the second seeding from the qualification round of men’s individual recurve section.
India also disappointed in the recurve mixed team event, despite a favourable draw because of their fourth-place finish in the qualification.
The duo of Bommadevara and Ankita, who got a bye into the last-16, lost out to lower-ranked Italy 4-5 (35-37, 36-35, 39-37, 34-36) (16-17) in the shoot-off.
The next round of Paris Games qualifiers will be the Continental Games — for India it would be the Hangzhou Asian Games in October where mixed team champions and two individuals per gender will make the cut.
The Asian Championship in November in Bangkok and next year’s Antalya World Cup in June are the last two qualifying tournaments.
But in the worst case scenario, India will still stand a chance to qualify by virtue of their top-8 of World ranking, which will be awarded as per the list updated on June 24, 2024.
(With PTI inputs)