India's compound women's team of Parneet Kaur, Aditi Swami, and Surekha Vennam shocked the defending champions Colombia by a margin of 220-216 to qualify for the finals of the ongoing archery world championships on Wednesday, August 2.
While the women's team showed immense grit and determination during their clash against Colombia, India's hopes in the men's and mixed-team events came crashing down after a couple of close encounters that didn't go in India's favour.
The Indian fans had high hopes from the trio of Ojas Deotale, Prathamesh Jawkar and Abhishek Verma but to their dismay, the Netherlands got the better of India in the quarterfinals of the prestigious event to advance to the semis.
The pair of Deotale and Jyothi Surekha was also involved in a nail-biting quarterfinal and went down fighting against the USA by a slender margin of one point (154-153).
Notably, the Indian archers failed to book a place in the Paris Olympics team events after suffering quarterfinal ousters in both men's and women's recurve competitions.
India's men's recurve team comprising Rajat Chauhan, Tushar Shelke and Dhiraj Bommadevara lost to Korea 1-5 (49-55, 57-57, 53-55) in what turned out to be a thrilling contest between both sides. On the other hand, the women's recurve team of Ankita Bhakat, Simranjeet Kaur and Bhajan Kaur threw more punches than their male counterparts and were in the contest right till the end but faced a heartbreaking defeat 2-6 (49-48, 52-53, 48-50, 54-57) in the end.
India now have their hopes pinned on Bommadevara in the ongoing tournament as the individual rounds get underway on Thursday, August 3. India will aim to make it to the Paris Olympics through the upcoming continental games - the Hangzhou Asian Games in October, where the winners of the mixed team event and two athletes per gender can earn qualification.
Despite unfavourable outcomes, India can still make it to the event in Paris based on their top-8 of the world ranking, but with the Asian Championship in November and Antalya World Cup in June 2024 still to come there is hope that qualification scenario for the mega event in Paris won't turn out to be that difficult.
