Atanu Das, Deepika Kumari make World Archery Championship cut

KOLKATA: Recently-engaged couple Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari made it to the Indian squad for the World Archery Championship to be held in s'Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, from June 10-16.
India will have a chance to grab team quota places (three members) for the 2020 Olympics from the World meet. If they manage to achieve that, Indian archers will participate in three team (including mixed) and two individual events.
The squad was selected after a three-day trial in Bhubaneswar among the top 16 archers that were identified from an open selection trials which was held in January and the top eight of the National championship that concluded in Cuttack last week.
Both Atanu and Deepika overcame disappointing outings in the Nationals, where the former managed a bronze while the latter came away empty-handed in the individual categories.
Former World No. 1 Deepika was back to her best in the Bhubaneswar trial, as she finished on top after eight rounds for a ranking and then 11 rounds of knockout duels.
Deepika will be joined by veteran L Bombayla Devi and Jharkhand’s Komalika Bari in the World championship.
The men’s trial saw Atanu finishing second. The Kolkata boy will have another veteran Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav as his teammates.
Bombayla maintained her consistency after claiming bronze in the Nationals, where Ankita Bhakat topped.
Services archer Pravin Jadhav made the India squad after claiming gold in the Nationals.
While the top three archers from the selection trial will travel for the World Championship, the top four will enter the first and third stages of the World Cup. Archers ranked No. 5 to 8 in the trial will represent the country in the second stage of the World Cup.
Accordingly, Atul Verma of Madhya Pradesh and Madhu Vedwan of Uttar Pradesh made the men’s and women’s squads, respectively, for the first and third stages of the World Cup.
Jagdish Choudhary (Rajasthan), Vakil Raj Dindor (Rajasthan), Sukhchain Singh (Services) and Chaman Singh (Police Sports Board) made the men’s section for World Cup stage II, while Preeti (Haryana), Sakshi Shitole (Maharashtra), Promila Daimary (Assam) and Ankita Bhagat (Jharkhand) will feature in the women’s section.
World Championship squads
Women: Deepika Kumari, L Bombayla Devi and Komalika Bari
Men: Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav.