The Indian Women Archery Team lead by the former World No.1 Deepika Kumari has reached its last qualifying event for the Tokyo Olympics in Paris. The team including the trio of Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat and Komalika Bari reached Paris on Monday and have their event on June 20.
In order to make it to the Tokyo Olympics all the three archers i.e. Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat and Komalika Bari have to aim and win the top three berths available as the Tokyo Olympics starts on June 23. Archery Association of India assistant secretary Gunjan Abrol told PTI, "The Indian women archers are going through a mandatory 10-day quarantine. They went ahead of the men’s team because of the Olympic qualifiers."
She further added that the men’s recurve and compound teams will leave India on Tuesday. The Indian Men's Archery Team has already secured their berth in the Olympics going to be held in Tokyo by qualifying in the 2019 World Championships.
India, has so far, succeeded in the individual quota for women in archery. This was achieved by Deepika Kumari who leads the current team. She has achieved it by qualifying in the Continental Qualifiers in Bangkok in 2019.
The women archery team would compete in the World Cup only a week later in their qualifying event. Indian compound team had missed out on World Cup Stage 1 in Guatemala City following their head coach’s “false positive report”. Yet in the absence of the compound team, the archers bagged three gold medals in April in the World Cup.
Who is Deepika Kumari?
Deepika Kumari is an Indian sportswoman who contends in Archery and is also a part of the current Indian Women Archery team. She is at present positioned World No. 9, and is a previous World No.1. She won gold in the 2010 Commonwealth games in the women's individual recurve event.
Picture Credits: Indian Express