Sukhchain Singh tops the charts, Atanu Das bows out in quarters of National Rankings Archery Tournament

Olympian husband-wife archers Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari must have hoped to start the new season on a high note. However, the couple suffered defeat in the quarterfinal stage of the recurve event at the inaugural National Rankings Archery Tournament that concluded Sunday in Hyderabad.

According to the Archery Association of India (AAI) release, Das of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) lost to 4-6 Sukhchain Singh of Service Sports Control Board (SSCB) in the quarterfinals of the men’s recurve ranking event.

Singh continued his good run in the competition by defeating Jayanta Talukdar of Jharkhand 6-4 to top the ranking charts.

It was a clean sweep for SSCB archers in the men’s recurve ranking event. Rahul Kumar Nagarwal and Bommadevara Dhiraj finished second and third, respectively.

National champion Parth Sushant Salunkhe of Maharashtra, ranked number one in qualification, bowed out early as he lost his quarterfinal match 4-6 to Atul Verma of the SSCB.

Olympian Pravin Jadhav of the SSCB also bowed out in the quarterfinal stages of the tournament, having suffered a close 9-10 loss to Haryana’s Sachin Gupta. Olympian Tarundeep Rai of the SSCB was another big name to tumble in the last eight stages of the ranking competition.

In the women’s recurve ranking event, Deepika Kumari representing Jharkhand, suffered a 3-7 defeat at the hands of greenhorn Kadire Sindhuja of Telangana in the quarterfinal stages.

Jharkhand’s Ankita Bhakat was ranked number one after a weeklong competition. She beat Haryana’s promising Ridhi 10-8 in her final match.

Punjab’s Simaranjeet Kaur finished second while Ridhi fought hard to earn third position.

Rajat Chauhan of Rajasthan was unstoppable in the men’s compound event. While Chauhan topped the rankings, Prathamesh Samadhan Jawkar of Maharashtra finished second. Prathamesh Bhalchandra Fuge, also of Maharashtra, was third.

In the women’s compound ranking event, V Jyothi Surekha of PSPB was ranked number one. Aditi Gopichand Swami of Maharashtra and Priya Gurjar of Rajasthan finished second and third, respectively.