Paris Olympics 2024: Indian archers aiming to snap the Olympic hoodoo

Although India did not win team quotas in the qualifiers, it secured berths through world rankings due to performances in various elite archery events.

Making the cut: Dhiraj Bommadevara became the first Indian recurve archer to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics by winning silver at the Asian Qualification Tournament in Bangkok last year.  | Photo Credit: Getty Images

The Indian archery contingent is excited that, after 12 years and for only the third time, the country has obtained men’s and women’s team quotas for the Paris Olympics. They are keen to break the jinx in the quadrennial event, the only global competition where the country has yet to open its account.

Rigorous selection trials and numerous competitions kept the archers on their toes and made them battle-ready. They produced good results, including team medals for both men and women in the Asian Games in October and strong finishes in the World Cup stages.

Although India did not win team quotas in the qualifiers, it secured berths through world rankings due to performances in various elite events.

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With three men and three women in the fray, the country will field six athletes in individual competitions, in addition to competing in men’s, women’s, and mixed team events.

The recent form of the Indian recurve archers has been promising, earning medals in two of the three World Cup stages this year. The male archers, B. Dhiraj (making his Olympic debut), Tarundeep Rai (in his fourth Olympics), and Pravin Jadhav (in his second Olympics), inspire confidence, and there is a noticeable difference in their approach to the mega event.

Dhiraj’s average arrow score is 9.4, while Rai and Jadhav average 9.3 and 9.2, respectively. This season, all three achieved their career-best scores in a qualification round: Dhiraj with 693, Rai with 684, and Jadhav with 676 out of a maximum of 720. Although these scores are high, they aim to enhance their accuracy for greater consistency. Their upset win over the world champion Korean team in the World Cup Stage-1 final in Shanghai earlier this year shows that the Indians can challenge the best in the world.

Paris Olympics 2024 schedule: Full list of Archery events, dates, venues and timings in IST

Dhiraj also claimed an individual bronze and a mixed team bronze (with Bhajan Kaur) in the World Cup Stage-3 in Antalya. With plenty of experience and determination to change Indian archery’s disappointing record, the trio has identified the roadblocks and is taking steps to write a different script at this Olympics.

The women’s team, led by the experienced Deepika Kumari (who made a comeback after giving birth to her daughter two years ago and will compete in her fourth Olympics), and consisting of two debutants, Ankita Bhakat and Bhajan, is also eager to give its best.

Back in the game: Deepika Kumari, a former world number one, returned to the international arena after a 14-month break following the birth of her first child in 2022. | Photo Credit: PTI

The women archers’ individual stats may not match those of the men. But some encouraging results — including Deepika’s silver in Shanghai and Bhajan’s mixed team bronze with Dhiraj, and the women’s team and Ankita’s fourth-place finishes in Antalya — give the team the confidence it needs ahead of the Olympics.

High-performance director Sanjeeva Singh emphasises the importance of the process. “We are telling them a medal is an outcome. You have to ensure 100 percent process efficiency,” says Sanjeeva, advising the archers to shoot fast to keep mental distractions at bay.

The archers are aware they need high scores and top ranks in the qualification round to get favourable draws and avoid facing archers from strong teams such as Korea, Turkey, Japan, Chinese Taipei, France, Italy, and Mexico in the initial rounds. India will eye the team events, where 12 countries will compete in each gender and 16 in the mixed team, as the draws will be shorter than the individual events, where 64 archers per gender will compete.

Paris has been a favourable venue for Indian archers, as they have won medals in each World Cup stage held in the French capital over the last three years.

“We are not comfortable in strong windy conditions because of the poundage (of bows) we are using. But now the men’s poundage has increased considerably. We are shooting with bows weighing 48 to 52 pounds. But the women’s poundage is still less, 40 to 44. Luckily, in Paris, the wind will be similar to what we are practising with in Pune or Sonipat,” says Sanjeeva.

For the Indians, it will be heartening to see their archers break a 52-year jinx in their ‘lucky’ city.

The 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.