Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat emerged as the top-seeded Indian archers from the men’s and women’s archery ranking rounds, respectively, at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Thursday.
Former world No. 1 Deepika Kumarimeanwhile, had a muted outing at Les Invalides and bagged the 23rd seeding in the women’s individual event.
Bommadevara overcame a challenging start with a solid performance in the second half.
The Indian archer was 24th at the halfway stage with 335 from 36 shots. He struck 23 10s, including nine Xs, from his remaining 36 shots to rise to fourth spot with a total of 681/720. In the round of 64, Bommadevara will face 61st seed Adam Li of Czechia.
On the other hand, Bhakat shot a season’s best of 666/720 to finish 11th in the women’s ranking round. She started eight of her 12 ends with Xs and the remaining four starts had 10s.
Overall, she struck nine Xs from 72 shots. Bhakat is set to compete against Poland’s Wioleta Myszor (54th seed) in the women’s round of 64.
The ranking rounds are used to seed athletes, teams and mixed teams for the upcoming competitions at Paris 2024. All archers (64 men and 64 women) competed in the ranking rounds on Thursday.
Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat’s combined score of 1347 helped the Indian archery team at the Paris 2024 Olympics qualify for the mixed team event as fifth seeds. The Indian duo will face Indonesia in the round of 16. Only the top 16 teams qualified for the mixed team event.
The men’s team of Dhiraj Bommadevara, Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav finished third with a combined score of 2,013. The women’s team of Deepika Kumari, Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat ended up fourth with a score of 1,983.
The top four seeds in the men’s and women’s team events received a bye and will start their campaigns directly from the quarter-finals. The Indian men’s team will take on Turkiye or Colombia in the quarter-finals while the women’s team will be up against hosts France or the Netherlands.
In the women’s ranking round, which was topped by the Republic of Korea’s Lim Sihyeon with a world record score of 694, Bhajan Kaur scored 659 for the 22nd seeding while four-time Olympian Deepika Kumari, with 658 points, took the 23rd spot.
In the women’s individual round of 64, Kaur will take on Indonesia’s Syifa Nurafifah Kamal (43rd seed) while Kumari will compete against Estonia’s Reena Pernat (42nd seed).
In the men’s ranking round, Tarundeep Rai, also appearing in his fourth Olympics, shot 674 for 14th place while Tokyo Olympian Pravin Jadhav was 39th with 658 points.
In the round of 64, Rai and Jadhav will take on Great Britain’s Tom Hall (51st seed) and the People’s Republic of China’s Wenchao Kao (26th seed), respectively.
The archery events at the Paris 2024 Olympics will resume on July 28 and conclude on August 4.
Paris 2024 Olympics archery ranking round: India results
Men’s individual
- Dhiraj Bommadevara-4th
- Tarundeep Rai – 14th
- Pravin Jadhav – 39th
Women’s individual
- Ankita Bhakat – 11th
- Bhajan Kaur- 22nd
- Deepika Kumari – 23rd
Men’s team
Women’s team
Mixed team
