Ankita Bhakat and Dhiraj Bommadevara narrowly missed out on India's first-ever Olympics medal in Archery at the Paris Olympics Games 2024 on Friday, August 2. The Indian duo suffered a 6-2 loss to USA's Kaufhold Casey and Ellison Brady in the archery mixed event match for a bronze medal to finish fourth, India's best-ever achievement in the Summer Games.
Indian archers started their campaign in the mixed event round of 16 after impressive performances in the ratings round. They defeated Indonesia's Diananda Choirunsima and Arif Pangestu 5-1 in the round of 16 match and then thrashed the Spanish duo of Elia Canales and Pablo Gonzalez by 5-3 to reach the semi-finals.
India reached the semi-final event for the first time in any category of archery at the Olympics where they faced the eventual gold medal winners Sihyeon Lim and Woojin Kim of South Korea. Ankita and Dhiraj registered two 10s in the opening set to take a stunning 2-0 lead over the South Korean pair.
But the South Korean duo with the experience of four Olympic golds and ten world championships proved their superiority to clinch dominant wins in the next two sets to enter the final with a score of 6-2 and then thrashed Germany's archers 6-0 in the final to claim their combined fifth gold in the Summer Games.
Ankita and Dhiraj faced the USA's Kaufhold Casey and Ellison Brady in the bronze medal match but were under pressure after a big loss against South Korea. Ankita struggled to hold her nerves and registered two 7s and two 8s which proved crucial in India's defeat. Ankita scored a total of 68 points of a possible 80 with just two 10s while Dhiraj faired better with a score of 77 of possible 80 points with the help of five 10s.
