Explained: Why it's important for Deepika Kumari to score bulls-eye at Tokyo Olympics

Deepika Kumari kicked off her Tokyo Olympics campaign on Friday with the women’s individual archery event. She is the first Indian athlete to be in action in Tokyo. Deepika Kumari started her qualification round strongly, amassing 334 points by the end of six sets.

The Indian archer is one of the favourites to finish on the podium at the Tokyo Olympics. But in order to do that, she would need a favorable draw. Many elite archers target as many bulls-eyes in the qualification rounds to increase their medal-winning chances.

What is the importance of scoring bulls-eye at Tokyo Olympics?

Qualification rounds are held to decide the rankings of archers for the knockout rounds. In the individual event, each archer is given 72 arrows in the qualification phase. The fixtures for the knockouts are decided on the basis of rankings.

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Every archer tries to rank as high as possible to get a favorable draw at the Tokyo Olympics. However, in case there is a tie in score of two archers, there are certain conditions which help the officials decide the rankings.

In qualification if scores are tied --

1) Then the number of 10+bulls eye (x) will be counted. The archer with the most 10+bulls eye (x) gets a higher ranking.

2) In case they are tied on that as well, only bulls-eyes are taken into account to decide the ranking.

3) If it is still not possible to separate them, a shootout is held (only during qualifications). If such a case occurs in the competition, they check the distance of X from the center.

Scoring bulls-eye is very important for Deepika Kumari to improve medal winning chances in her third Olympic appearance.

What will happen if Deepika Kumari is seeded higher at Tokyo Olympics?

There are a total of 64 archers in the fray at the moment in Tokyo. Depending on the qualification rankings, they are pitted against one another on matchdays. The No.1 placed archer competes against No.64, the second placed archer locks horns against No.63 and so on and so forth.

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The archers compete in the best-of-five sets. A set is a predetermined number of arrows shot by an archer, and the ones with a better aggregate score earn two points for winning a set. If it’s a tie, then a point each is shared. In an individual event, three arrows constitute a set.

The first one to accumulate six points is the winner, while the loser is eliminated. This continues until the final which will be the medal match at the Tokyo Olympics.

If the scores are tied after five sets, the match goes into the tie-breaker. In individual events, the winner is determined by the archer whose arrow lands closest to the target.

The Medal Tally for Tokyo 2020 is out now. Check out the Tokyo Olympics Medal Tally.