Archery: Indian women’s team fail to qualify for Olympics, lose to Colombia

Deepika Kumari will now be the sole entry in the women's section in the Tokyo Games

Paris: World Cup champion Indian women’s recurve team failed to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics after a tame loss to lower-ranked Colombia in the Final Qualifier here on Sunday.

It was the last opportunity for the Indians to upgrade their single women’s quota place to team invitation in Tokyo but they failed to make it. Deepika Kumari will now be the sole entry in the women’s section in the Tokyo Games. She will be in her third successive Olympics. India has already secured the men’s team quota for the Olympics from the World Championships in Den Bosch, the Netherlands in 2019.

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The fancied Indian women’s team had to finish among the top-three in a field of 28 to make the cut but it lost in the opening round, putting up a disappointing performance. The trio of world number three Deepika, Ankita Bhakat and 19-year-old Komalika Bari, who had won gold in the World Cup stage one at Guatemala City two months back, failed to win any set to be blanked 0-6 by their Colombian counterparts.

The Colombian trio of Ana Maria Rendon, Valentia Acosta Giraldo and Maira Sepulveda shot consistently and started off with a two perfect 10s, including one arrow closest to the centre (X), to take the first set 55-54. Under pressure, the Indian women’s team drilled a shocking 49 that included a poor 5 to lose the second set by two points.

There was no looking back for the Colombians as they clinched the issue in style in the third set with another two perfect 10s, including one X. The India team earlier had a perfect start with Deepika shooting the top individual score in the morning, hitting 674 as it took the second place behind Mexico in the qualification round to advance directly to the second round.