Paris Olympics 2024 Round-up: Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat Shine to Secure Direct Quarters Spot in Men’s and Women’s Archery Events

Paris Olympics: Indian archers Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat (PTI and World Archery/X)

After a tame start, Indian archers roared back to begin India’s campaign at the Paris Olympics on a positive note. Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat starred as Indian archers secured a direct entry into the quarterfinals of both the men’s and women’s team events after finishing third and fourth respectively in the ranking round at the Esplanade des Invalides in Paris on Thursday.

Debutants Dhiraj and Ankita’s spectacular show in the qualifications helped India finish in the top four, giving them favourable draws to clinch an elusive Olympic medal in archery.

The top four in the team standings directly advance to the quarterfinals, while those ending between 5th to 12th play the Round of 16 fixtures.

The Indian men’s team is seeded third, which means they will not feature in the same pool as the invincible Koreans in the next round. Now, both the Indian teams need just two wins for securing Olympics medals.

Dhiraj, the World Cup bronze-medallist, who defeated Tokyo Olympics silver winner Mauro Nespoli in Antalya, lived up to the expectations by finishing fourth in the individual round.

The duo of Ankita and Dhiraj, who was the star of the day with an excellent performance in the second half of his competition, will be seeded fifth in the mixed team round of 16 event.

India’s mixed team finished at the fifth position with 1347 points. Dhiraj got 681 while Ankita scored 666 earlier in the day.

The mixed team score is determined by summing the best individual score from the women’s and men’s individual event.

The Indian men’s team made it to the quarter-finals by finishing third in the ranking round with 2013 points.

Dhiraj shone with a fourth-spot finish in individual section with 681 points. Appearing in his fourth Olympics, Tarundeep Rai ended 14th with 674 points while Pravin Jadhav finished 39th with 658 points.

Korea’s Woojin Kim and Je Deok Kim bagged the top two positions with scores of 688 and 682 respectively. Germany’s Florian Unruh was third with 681.

Earlier in the day, Games debutant Ankita left behind seasoned campaigners like Deepika Kumari to emerge as the best-placed Indian archer at 11th in the women’s individual qualifications as the country secured a quarterfinal spot by finishing fourth.

The 26-year-old Ankita was the top-ranked Indian woman, followed by Bhajan Kaur (22nd with 559 points) and Deepika (23rd with 658 points).

India grabbed the fourth spot by scoring 1983 points. South Korea topped the standings with 2046 points. China finished runners-up while Mexico grabbed the third spot.

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