Indian women's archery team gets fifth seed in Olympic qualifiers, two wins shy from Paris quota

ANTALYA: Indian women's recurve team of Deepika Kumari, Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat qualified as fifth seed in the Final Olympic Qualifiers here on Friday and now stands two victories away from securing quota for the Paris Games.

The Indian team aggregated 1978 points to finish behind leaders China (1996), second-placed Japan (1991), Spain (1990) and Chinese Taipei (1982) in the qualifying standings.

By qualifying as fifth seeds, India will start from the round of 16 in the 24-team draw against 21st seeds Ukraine and may have to overcome Chinese Taipei in the quarters to grab the Paris quota.

The semifinalists will land Paris Olympic quota places.

The elimination rounds are slated later in the day.

India had an incredible qualifying round, shooting 90 perfect scores of 10 and X (the closest to the centre arrow).

It was second behind the Taiwanese archers who shot 91 10+X scores. But it did not matter as they fell behind in the overall scores.

To put things in perspective, Chinese team had a share of 88, while Japan and Spain shot 89 and 76 10+X scores.

The 10+X shots are counted to determine the placings in case of a tie.

The men's team qualifying event will be held on Saturday and will see stiff competition among 46 teams for just three available quotas.

More than 300 recurve archers from 80-plus nations are competing in the final qualifying event for the Paris Olympics, beginning on July 26.