Antalya World Cup in Turkey will be a litmus test for Indian archers

The five-day long World Cup in archery starting next week in Antalya, Turkey, will be a good platform to evaluate the performance of the core group of archers ahead of the World Championships in August, Sanjeeva Kumar Singh, India’s high performance director in archery said.

“The main goal this year is to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games at the first attempt at the Berlin World Championships,” Singh told Sportskeeda over the phone from Sonepat in Haryana.

The national team is expected to leave on Sunday for Antalya to compete in the season’s first World Cup in Turkey. The Archery Association of India (AAI) will field teams in both recurve and compound events.

While recurve and compound events feature at the Asian Games, the Olympic Games schedule has competition in recurve only.

“Preparation of the national team has gone on the expected lines, but the World Cup in Antalya will give us a good picture of where the national team stands,” high performance director in archery explained.

“The archers have been working hard physically and have shown marked improvement in their skills. But the performance in Turkey will enable us to improve ahead of the Olympic Games qualification in Berlin," he added.

The top three teams at the Berlin World Championships will automatically qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Apart from the World Championships, the Hangzhou Asian Games in China in September and the continental championship at the end of the 2023 season in Thailand are the other two qualifying events for the Paris Olympic Games.

“The national recurve team has a good chance of making the cut for the Olympic Games at the first attempt in Berlin,” Singh said with an air of confidence.

At the Antalya World Cup, Asian sporting giants China and South Korea will not compete. However, the Shanghai World Cup from May 16 to 21 in China shall be more competitive as host China and South Korea will be in the fray.

“Since China is hosting the Asian Games, the Shanghai World Cup will be an excellent opportunity for the Indian teams to rub shoulders with the best in the business,” high performance director of archery added.

The third World Cup in Medellin is scheduled to be held from June 13 to 18.

The three World Cups will also be a litmus test for the core group of archers. Of the four-member national team, the top three will compete at the Asian Games, Purnima Mahato, the national archery coach, said.

“The athletes will have to sustain their performance in the coming months as the top three will only get a chance to board a flight to China for the Asian Games in September,” Purnima added.