Indian recurve archery teams all but qualify for Paris Olympics

As per a new rule, rankings allow berths to the top two countries who have not secured quotas from the Olympic Qualifiers.

File Photo: Indian archer Deepika Kumari (in pic) along with Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat assured their Paris Olympics place for women’s recurve team after reaching the semifinals of the World Cup Stage 3 in Antalya. | Photo Credit: PTI

Priyansh kept alive his chances of winning an individual medal in the compound division, while the Indian men and women recurve teams remained in contention for Olympic berths at the end of third day of the Archery World Cup Stage-3 in Antalya, Turkey, on Thursday.

Priyansh was the lone Indian archer to reach the compound men’s individual semifinals.

Showing amazing consistency, Priyansh got past Germany’s Sebastian Hamdorf 149-141, Mexico’s Juan Del Rio 149-149 (shoot-off: 10-9), compatriot Prathamesh Fuge 149-148 and Turkey’s Batuhan Akcaoglu 149-147. He will meet Denmark’s Mathias Fullerton in the last-four.

Abhishek Verma was ousted by Akcaoglu 148-146.

READ | India confirms quota in women’s individual recurve for Olympics, Bhajan Kaur wins gold at final qualifier

In the women’s individual event, V. Jyothi Surekha lost to Italian Elisa Roner 147-145 in the third round. Aditi Swami was beaten by Paola Ramirez Gonzalez 142-140, while Parneet Kaur was beaten 146-144 by USA’s Alexis Ruiz in the second round.

In the recurve women’s team event, the fifth-ranked India, comprising Deepika Kumari, Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat, received a first round bye and defeated Netherlands 6-2 and Ukraine 5-3 before losing to France 5-4 (shoot-off 28-25) in the semifinals.

Later, India also lost to Japan 6-0 in the bronze medal match.

However, a semifinal finish should help the Indian women make it to Paris 2024.

The sixth-seeded Indian men’s team, including B.Dhiraj, Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav, got a bye but lost the next round to Netherlands 5-1.

Indian men and women’s teams are likely to qualify for the Paris 2024 through world rankings of teams which have not qualified yet.