Indian archers had a strong start at the Paris Olympics, with both the men’s and women’s recurve teams securing direct qualification to the quarter-finals on Thursday.
The women’s team advanced to the quarter-finals after placing fourth in the ranking round with a combined score of 1983.
Ankita Bhakat secured 11th place overall in the individual ranking round, achieving a season-best score of 666 out of 720. Bhajan Kaur finished 22nd with a score of 659, closely followed by Deepika Kumari in 23rd place with 658 points.
Later on Thursday, the men’s team also qualified for the quarter-finals by finishing third in the ranking round with a total score of 2,013 points.
Dhiraj Bommadevara led the team with a fourth-place finish, accumulating 681 points. Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav followed in 14th and 39th place with scores of 674 and 658 points, respectively.
Bhakat and Bommadevara also secured fifth place in the mixed team rankings with a combined score of 1,347 points, setting up a match against Indonesia in the pre-quarter-finals.
In the women’s section, Korea’s Lim Sihyeon and Nam Suhyeon claimed first and second place in the individual ranking round with scores of 694 and 688, respectively. Lim Sihyeon’s score of 694 is a new world record.
Xiaolei Yang of China finished third with a score of 673.
South Korea topped the team ranking with a score of 2,046, setting a new Olympic record. The Korean team also achieved an Olympic record in the mixed team rankings with a combined score of 1,380 points.
The third member of the Korean team, Jeon Hunyoung, scored 664.
China and Mexico secured the second and third spots in the team rankings with scores of 1,996 and 1,986, respectively.
India is set to play either France or the Netherlands in the quarter-finals of the women’s recurve team archery event.
In the men’s team standings, South Korea led with 2,049 points, followed by France with 2,025 points—12 points ahead of India, which finished third. China placed fourth with 1,998 points.
India will face the winner of the pre-quarter-final match between Turkiye and Colombia in their next round.
Bhakat and Bommadevara are scheduled to compete against Indonesia’s Arif Pangestu and Diananda Choirunisa in the mixed team pre-quarter-finals on August 2.
The women’s team events, including the bronze and gold medal matches, will be held on Sunday, July 28, while the men’s events will take place the following day.
During the ranking round, each archer shoots 72 arrows, and the final score determines the seeding for the individual events. Team seeding is based on the combined scores of individual competitors. Teams finishing in the top four qualify directly for the quarter-finals, while teams ranked fifth through twelfth compete in the pre-quarters.
Mixed team seedings are based on the top scores from the men’s and women’s teams, with only the top 16 pairs advancing to the next round.
The archery competition is being held at the lawns of the Invalides, France’s military museum and the final resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte.
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