Indian recurve archery teams qualify for 2024 Paris Olympics through world rankings

World Rankings came to Indian recurve archery teams’ rescue as the Indian men’s and women’s teams qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics based on the updated World Archery Rankings on Monday.

Among the non-qualified nations, after the completion of all qualifiers, the Indian teams were at the top of the list and thereby sealed an Olympic berth.

The qualification means 40-year-old Tarundeep Rai and former World No. 1 Deepika Kumari will be playing in their fourth Olympic Games. Tarundeep made his Olympics debut at the Athens 2004 Olympics while for Deepika the Paris edition of the Games will be her fourth consecutive appearance after having made her debut Games in the 2012 edition in London.

Deepika, Ankita Bhakat and Bhajan Kaur will comprise the Indian women’s team while Tarundeep, Dhiraj Bommadevara and Pravin Jadhav are the Indian men’s team. Dhiraj, Ankita and Bhajan will make their Olympics debut while Pravin will be participating in his second Olympics, after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The team qualification now means India will compete in all five archery medal events at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Indian archery teams will play in the men’s and women’s team events, individual categories and the mixed team category.

The top two nations, based on the world rankings, who did not qualify from the qualifiers progressed on the basis of world ranking. In the men’s section, India and China made the cut while in the women’s category, India and Indonesia sealed Olympic berths.

The team events will have 12 sides in each section, while five teams will compete in the mixed competitions.

The world rankings were updated after the three Olympic qualifiers. The first Olympic Qualifier tournament was held during the World Archery Championships in Berlin last year. South Korea, Turkey and Japan qualified in the men’s category while Germany and Mexico secured their spots in the women’s division.

The second leg was a continental qualifier. Kazakhstan and South Korea won the men’s and women’s team quotas, respectively from the Asian leg, while Colombia and the United States made the cut from Pan America. From the European leg, Italy (men) and the Netherlands (women) secured quotas.

The final Olympic Qualifier was held in Antalya last week. Mexico, Chinese Taipei, and Great Britain in the men’s section; China, Malaysia, Great Britain and Chinese Taipei from the women’s section secured quotas from the Final Qualifier.

Indian recurve archery squad for 2024 Paris Olympics:

Men: Tarundeep Rai, Dhiraj Bommadevara and Pravin Jadhav

Women: Deepika Kumari, Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat