Indian women’s archery team reaches Paris hoping to seal Tokyo 2020 spot

The Indian women’s archery team reached Paris on Monday for their final shot at qualification for Tokyo 2020, slated to get underway on July 23 2021.

World No 1 Deepika Kumari leads the Indian women’s team, alongside Ankita Bhakat and Komolika Bari, into the Final Qualification event.

India will have finish in the top three at the event, which will run from June 18 to 21, to ensure qualification.

“The Indian women archers are going through a mandatory 10-day quarantine. They went ahead of the men’s team because of the Olympic qualifiers,” Archery Association of India assistant secretary Gunjan Abrol told PTI.

Deepika had won India the individual quota for women at the Continental Qualifiers in Bangkok in 2019. The Indian men’s team also secured their Olympic berth during the 2019 World Championships.

“The men’s recurve and compound teams will leave India on Tuesday,” Abrol said.

The teams will also compete in the Paris World Cup Stage 3, which begins on June 21.

As their head coach had tested positive for Covid-19, which turned out to be a ‘false positive’, the Indian compound team could not compete at the World Cup Stage 1 in Guatemala City.

The recurve team, however, returned with their best ever performance at a World Cup. Indian archery’s power couple Atanu Das and Deepika won a gold medal in the men’s and women’s recurve individual event.

Deepika, Bhakat and Bari also clinched gold in the women’s recurve team event. The recurve mixed team, of Das and Bhakat, won the bronze medal.