2021 Tokyo Olympics | Indian women's archery team reaches Paris for World Cup Stage 3
Deepika Kumari is the only Indian female archer to have qualified for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics so far
|World Archery
The Indian women’s archery team reached Paris on Monday to take part in the World Cup Stage 3, which is also their last shot to qualify for the Olympics. The team comprising of Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat and Komalika Bari will serve a 10-day mandatory quarantine period before the event starts.
The Indian men’s recurve team, which comprises Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav, have already qualified for the Olympics. Meanwhile, all the aformentioned players have also made the cut in the men’s individual event. However, in the women’s section, only Deepika Kumari qualified for the women’s individual event.
Even though it was expected that the women’s recurve team would secure a Tokyo berth by now, the lack of participation in qualifying events has washed away such plans. The Indian contingent was forced to skip the 2021 World Cup Stage 2 in Switzerland earlier this year, owing to travel restrictions. In fact, the Swiss government denied issuing visas for visiting Indian athletes in the backdrop of the second Covid-19 wave in India.
However, the team will get their last shot at the qualification during the 2021 World Cup Stage 3, in Paris, which kick-starts on June 21. The three-member women’s team reached the host city on Monday.
"Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat and Komalika Bari have been training hard. We hope they perform well in the last Olympic qualification tournament in Paris to win a team quota place," said Pramod Chandurkar, general secretary of AAI (Archery Association of India)
As per the official, the archers will undergo a 10-day mandatory quarantine period before the World Cup starts. However, the federation is hopeful that the world governing body and the local organisers would work out a solution and allow the athletes to train during the quarantine period.
"We had discussed the issue of training during quarantine with World Archery. We hope the world governing body and the local organising committee will find a solution," added the official.
