World Cup champs lose to ColombiaKOLKATA: In a major disappointment, the Indian women archers failed to earn a team quota place for the
Tokyo Olympics
after crashing out in the second round of the final qualification event in Paris on Sunday.
India will thus have four archers in Tokyo with
Deepika Kumari being the sole woman representative in the individual category. The men's team of Deepika's husband
Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai and
Pravin Jadhav will compete in both individual and team events.
Pressure of the occasion perhaps got the better of the Indian archers, who were tipped to go all the way. Poor shooting saw them fizzle out against Colombia 0-6.
The trio of Deepika,
Komalika Bari
and
Ankita Bhakat made a good start, qualifying as the second-best side in the morning.
Deepika shot the top individual score of the morning, hitting 674 to lead India to finish with 1992 points, which was just one point less than top seed Mexico.
Komalika was seventh with 662 and Ankita Bhakat was 15th with 651 points.
The trio thus became one of the eight competing sides to get a first-round bye which meant they needed to win just three matches to book a ticket to Tokyo.
But they faltered at their first hurdle in the knockout round, failing to win even a single set in spite of the fact that their Colombia rivals did not put up any exemplary show.
The Colombian team of World No. 72 Ana Maria Rendon, No. 80 Maira Sepulveda and No. 97 Valentia Acosta Giraldo won 55-54, 51-49 and 53-52.
India's top most archer Deepika confessed to feeling the nerves after the qualifying round. "I feel some pressure because it's the last opportunity to qualify. But we are confident," she was quoted as saying on the world archery website.
But in the end they failed to hold on to their nerves and even shot a poor five in the second and seven in the third set apart from a couple of eights in all the three sets.