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India are sending six archers to the Paris Olympics 2024 and will be taking part in all five events. Can they win a medal? We take a look at their chances. read more
 "How quotas were won, who is going, and what are the medal chances?")
India will be looking to win their fist Olympic medal in archery at Paris Games 2024. Images; PTI/SonyLIV
India are sending six archers to the Paris Olympics 2024 after the country secured both men’s and women’s team quotas based on the World Archery rankings. India sent four archers to Tokyo 2020 with Deepika Kumari being the only participant in the women’s recurve individual event, while Atanu Das, Pravin Jadhav, and Tarundeep Rai took part in men’s individual recurve events and the team competition.
In Archery a National Olympic Committee (NOC) can send three archers of each gender to compete in a team event and each of those archers will also compete in the individual events.
Before India earned the team quotas, Dhiraj Bommadevara was the first Indian archer to qualify for the Paris Olympics after he clinched the individual quota in the men’s recurve event by winning a silver at the Asian Continental Qualifier Tournament 2023 in Bangkok, Thailand. Bhajan Kaur won the second individual quota, in women’s recurve archery, by clinching gold at the Final World Quota Tournament in Antalya, Turkey last month.
Bhajan’s gold also ensured India got a mixed event quota.
However, Dhiraj and Bhajan’s individual quotas were upgraded to team quotas on the basis of World Archery rankings as of 24 June 2024. India topped the rankings among the non-qualified nations in both men’s and women’s sections to earn the team quotas.
All in all, at the Paris Olympics, India will have a representation across all five archery events:
Men’s individual
Women’s individual
Men’s team
Women’s team
Mixed team event
It’s important to note that recurve is the only accepted form of archery at the Olympics.
Who is going?
Former world No. 1 Deepika Kumari and Tarundeep Rai are household names in Indian archery and both individuals will be taking part in their fourth Summer Games. Tarundeep’s first Olympics was Athens 2004, while Deepika has featured in all Games since London 2012.
Pravin Jadhav is set for his second Games after Tokyo 2020.
Dhiraj Bommadevara, Ankita Bhakat, and Bhajan Kaur will be making their Olympic debuts in Paris.
Indian archery team for Paris Olympics 2024:
Men’s recurve
Dhiraj Bommadevara, Tarundeep Rai, Pravin Jadhav.
Women’s recurve
Bhajan Kaur, Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat.
India’s Olympic history in Archery
India have never won an Olympic medal in archery.
This, however, is only the third time and first in 12 years that they have clinched men’s and women’s team quotas for an Olympics.
In the last edition at Tokyo, the men’s team lost to South Korea in the quarter-finals, while Atanu lost in the pre-quarters, Tarundeep was ousted in the 1/16 eliminations round and Jadhav went down in the second round.
Deepika lost in the quarter-finals and suffered the same fate in the mixed team event where she teamed up with Jadhav.
Can India win a medal?
It will be historic if India win a medal in archery and the athletes have been progressing nicely. The men’s archers – Bommadevara (693), Tarundeep (684), and Jadhav (676) – have secured their personal best scores in the qualifying round for the Paris Games. They also stunned world champion South Korea to win team gold at the World Cup Stage 1 in Shanghai in April this year. At the same event, the mixed team featuring Bhakat and Bommadevara won bronze.
Bommadevara also won mixed team bronze at World Cup Stage 3 in Antalya, Turkey with Bhajan.
In the individual section, the 22-year-old Bommadevara, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, won bronze at World Cup Stage 3.
Veteran and ace archer from Jharkhand, Deepika, clinched silver at World Cup Stage 1.
The above results show that Indians are in good form but a lot will depend on how they perform on the day and the way they handle the pressure of the Olympics and medal expectations.
The focus of the Indian archers will be to do well in the individual ranking rounds to get favourable draws. The individual events will see 64 archers compete per gender while there will be 12 teams in team events for each gender and 16 in mixed team competition.
Archery schedule at Paris Olympics: The archery events will begin with the individual ranking round on 25 July 25. The main events will take place from 28 July to 4 August.
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English (US) ·