Archery World Cup 2023 Antalya: Atanu Das finishes fourth in men’s recurve individual ranking round
Making a comeback after almost two years, Atanu Das scored 673 in the ranking round to earn the fourth seeding. The Indian men’s recurve team also finished fourth.
Archery
Two-time Olympian Atanu Das finished fourth in the men’s recurve individual ranking round at the Archery World Cup 2023 Stage 1 in Antalya, Turkey on Wednesday.
Making a comeback after almost two years, Atanu Das scored 673 in the ranking round to earn the fourth seeding - the best among any Indian men’s recurve archer in the event.
Atanu Das was sidelined after the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and made his last India appearance in the Yankton World Cup Final in September 2021.
Among the Indians, Atanu Das was followed by B Dhiraj (665), Tarundeep Rai (662) and Neeraj Chauhan (639) at 15th, 23rd and 90th places respectively. The Indian men’s recurve archery team, with 2,000 points, also finished fourth in the ranking rounds.
In the individual section, local archer Mete Gazoz (688), USA’s Brady Ellison (687) and China’s Li Zhongyuan (679) bagged the top-three places respectively.
The fourth place standings also earned India a direct place in the pre-quarterfinals in the men’s team event, where they will face the first-round winners between Japan (seeded 13th) and Switzerland (20th).
The Indian men’s recurve team, however, faces a tough road ahead in the Archery World Cup as they are placed in the same half as USA (fifth seeds) and hosts Turkey, who are the top seeds.
Meanwhile, all of India’s women’s recurve archers finished outside the top 30 in the qualification round.
Debutant Bhajan Kaur was the top Indian in the ranking round as the 17-year-old finished 32nd with a score of 648. Mexican top-seed Alejandra Valencia scored 677.
Simranjeet Kaur (41st) and Ankita Bhakat (46th) were the next best Indians with scores of 648 and 644, respectively. The Indian women’s team finished 11th in the team standings.
The Indian women's recurve team will start its campaign against 22nd seeded Brazil in the round of 32.
Aditi Jaiswal, meanwhile, failed to make the team event after finishing 56th with a score of 637. She will only compete in the individual section.