The Archery Association of India has officially confirmed that Atanu Das will be representing India for the Rio 2016 Olympics after a selection trial at Bengaluru. The 24-year-old archer will be competing in the men's individual recurve discipline after getting the better of his compatriots Jayanta Talukdar and Mangal Singh Champia.
Last year, Champia had grabbed a solitary quota place in the World Championship but lost out to Atanu because of his unimpressive form in the past few months. The decision however, was made after a separate trial held by the Archery Association of India to pick the best out of the three.
Speaking over the phone after the selection, he says, “I am very happy that I have finally been selected to represent the nation. But there is a long way to go. Hopefully, I can make India proud.”
In the recently-concluded Antalya World Cup, the archer from West Bengal settled for a silver medal in the mixed recurve event alongside the former World No. 1, Deepika Kumari. Later he put up a spirited performance against the reigning World No. 1 Kim Woojin of Korea in the individual bronze medal play-off, eventually losing in a nail-biting shootout.
The men’s recurve team also failed in their pursuit to secure a place in the Rio Olympics after crashing out in the quarter-final of the final Olympic qualifying event. On the other hand, the women’s recurve team - Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi, and Laxmirani Mahi is going to Rio after making the cut in Denmark last year. Deepika will be a part of the individual recurve event as well.
