Archery World Cup: Indian women aim to get going ahead of World qualifiers

Returning to international action after more than a year, Indian women archers Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat, Komalika Bari and Madhu Vedwan would like to finetune their skills at the Archery World Cup 2021 ahead of the Olympic World Qualifiers in Paris in June. Stage 1 of the World Cup starts in Guatemala.

With less than 100 days remaining for the Tokyo Olympics, the Archery World Cup serves as a perfect competition for the women archers before the World Qualifiers as well as for those who have qualified for Tokyo 2021 and starved of competitive action due to the pandemic.

Among the four Indian archers to have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, Deepika is the only woman to have secured an individual quota. However, the Indian women’s team is yet to get a berth. Therefore, the women will aim to put a better performance at the Archery World Cup in Guatemala to build on the momentum.

India male archers hope to put in a good show at World Cup

Along with the women, India will also see its men – Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai, Pravin Jadhav, Dhiraj Bommadevara – claiming their stake at the World Cup. Atanu, Tarundeep and Pravin are the other Indians to have qualified for the Olympics.

The Indian men won the quota slots after clinching silver in the recurve team event at the 2019 Archery World Championships in the Netherlands. The second-place finish also made Atanu, Tarundeep and Pravin eligible to participate in the men’s individual recurve event at the Tokyo Olympics.

This is the first time since the 2019 Asian championships that the Indian archers are taking part in an international event. As many as over 150 archers from 25 countries are expected to be in action in Guatemala.

Meanwhile, the Archery Association of India (AAI) has withdrawn the compound archery team after coach Gaurav Sharma fell prey to ‘false testing’. Sharma was tested COVID-19 positive hours before boarding the flight, but the test was later found to be false.