Den Bosch (The Netherlands): The Indian men’s recurve team Tuesday stormed into the pre-quarterfinals of the World Archery Championships with a commanding 5-1 victory over Norway and are now just one win away from securing the 2020 Tokyo Olympics quota.
The trio of Tarundeep Rai, Pravin Jadhav and Atanu Das will next face Canada’s Eric Peters, Crispin Duenas and Brian Maxwell, Wednesday and if they win they will seal their spot for Tokyo.
The women’s recurve team also remained in the fray by qualifying sixth from a field of 55 nations for one of the eight Olympic quota spots. The top-eight seeding in the team event meant that the Indian women avoided the first round match Tuesday and went straight into a decider for the Olympic places, where they face 11th seed Belarus, Wednesday.
Laishram Bombayla Devi shot 664 to top the leaderboard among the Indians to secure 15th place overall in the qualifications, while Deepika Kumari was next best at 22th spot with a score of 660. Komalika Bari shot 650 to be ranked 40th in a field of 152 competitors.
“We are so excited and happy. Looking at our ranking in the qualification, we are confident to shoot well and secure Olympic berths,” Deepika said.
In individual competition, Tarundeep, Pravin and Deepika remained in the medal hunt advancing into their respective third rounds. Deepika stormed past Igibayeva Gaukhar of Kazakhstan 6-0 before downing Deonne Bridger of Great Britain 7-1. The 22nd seed Deepika will take on 11th seed Alejandra Valencia of Mexico.
There was, however, some disappointment in store for India as they made a first round exit in the recurve mixed pair event when the duo of Rai and Bombayla lost to their Polish opponents 4-5 (17-19) in the shoot-off.
PTI
