NEW DELHI: India will be fielding a maximum of six archers for the Paris Olympics this year after securing quotas in both the men’s and women’s recurve events.
The six-member team was also announced, with Deepika Kumari and Tarundeep Rai set to make their fourth appearance at the multi-sport extravaganza. India will also be sending a full team of archers for the first time since the 2012 London Games, as per Olympics.com.
Deepika, who has been in fine form since her return to competitive archery after becoming a mother in December 2022, has been a consistent part of the Indian archery team since 2012.
Rai, now 40 years of age, made his Olympics debut back in 2004 at Athens and took part in 2012 and 2020 editions of the competition as well. Pravin Jadhav will make his second Olympics appearance after Tokyo 2020.
Dhiraj Bommadevara, who bagged an individual men’s quota from the Asian qualifiers in Bangkok last year, and Bhajan Kaur, who won individual women’s quota at the final archery Olympic qualifiers in Antalya this month, have also made it to the squad for their first-ever Olympics.
Ankita Bhakat will also be making her Olympic debut in Paris. Though it was Dhiraj and Bhajan who got the only Paris 2024 quotas for India through direct competition, they were later upgraded to team quotas which let India compete in five medal events.
As per the qualification criteria, the top two teams per gender in world rankings as of June 24, which could not get team quotas through competitions, secured the team quotas through their rankings. India managed to fulfil this world rankings criteria and was in a good enough position to get the quotas.
Countries with team quotas can compete in men’s and women’s team events, the mixed team event and also play three archers in individual competitions.
Indian archers have never bagged an Olympic medal. Archery competition at Paris 2024 will start with the individual ranking round on July 25, a day before the Opening Ceremony. The remaining stages will be held from July 28 to August 4 at Les Invalides.
Indian Archery Team for Paris 2024 Olympics
Men: Tarundeep Rai, Dhiraj Bommadevara and Pravin Jadhav
Women: Deepika Kumari, Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat. (ANI)