ANTALYA (TURKEY), Jun 13: The Indian archers will be eager to excel and grab men’s and women’s team quotas in the four-day final Olympic qualifier beginning here on Friday. India have so far booked a men’s individual berth through Dhiraj Bommadevara.
The men’s team will have Bommadevara, Pravin Jadhav and veteran Tarundeep Rai who is aiming a fourth Olympics, having made his debut in Athens 2004.
All eyes in the women’s section will be on former world No. 1 Deepika Kumari who had a two-week training session under legendary South Korean coach Kim Hyung-Tak ahead of this event.
Making a comeback after becoming mother in December 2022, Deepika won a World Cup silver in Shanghai in April this year. She will be joined by Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat in the women’s team.
The last qualifier will give archers another opportunity to upgrade into team quotas in men’s and women’s events so that six archers can vie for the elusive Olympic medal at Paris Games in less than two months’ time.
The Olympic-bound team consists of three archers. The women’s event offers a maximum quota for four nations, which would mean the semifinalists among the 39 nations will make the cut.
France, Germany, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands and the USA have qualified in the women’s team event. The men’s event will see stiff competition among 46 teams for just three available quotas to the top-three finishers.
Colombia, France, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea and hosts Turkey have made the cut in the men’s team event. The women’s team finals will be on Friday, while the men’s team finals will be on Saturday.
More than 300 recurve archers from 80-plus nations will take to the shooting line. If a nation that has already won an individual quota and then upgrades to team quota will be given back the individual quota place, and will be made available for the individual qualifications on Saturday (women) and Sunday (men).
Only nations that have not yet won a quota place in the respective gender will compete here, and each nation may win a maximum of one place. The top-two ranked nations who have not qualified will also be offered team quotas as per the new rule.
Indian Squad
Men’s: Dhiraj Bommadevara, Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav.
Women’s: Deepika Kumari, Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat. (PTI)
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