Kolkata, July 07: Laishram Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari and Chekrovolu Swuro earned India three Olympic quota places by defeating France 216 points to 213 in the first round of the team championship elimination of the world archery meet at Turin on Wednesday.
Rahul Banerjee, Tarundeep Rai and Jayanta Talukdar were not so lucky as they were beaten by a point by the Chinese team.
The Indians lost 215-216 and will go into a play-off that gives the team another chance to qualify.
In normal course, Indian men would have been out of contention for Olympic berths but as luck would have it, Olympic Games' host Great Britain also qualified defeating Chinese Taipei 213-212. Since Great Britain has already been assured of three quota places as the host,India and most likely Chinese Taipei, the two next best placed teams, will play for the three berths.
World champion Korea, China, Italy and Ukraine assured themselves of full six quota places, three in men and as many in women's section.
Italy, France, the USA and Mexico made it to London from the men's section while India, Denmark, Chinese Taipei and Russia qualified from the women's side.
