India secured direct qualification to the quarterfinals of the women’s archery team event as the trio of Ankita Bhakat, Bhajan Kaur and Deepika Kumari finished 4th in the ranking round event on July 25, Thursday. Ankita finished 11th, Bhajan and Deepika finished 22nd and 23rd respectively. Team India scored 1983 points with 21 bullseyes and 83 10’s on the day. Korea finished top of the standings with 2046 points with China and Mexico ending in the 2nd and 3rd spots with 1996 and 1986 points respectively.
For Ankita, it was a season best finish as she was the most consistent archer on the day for India. Deepika struggled to find rhythm from the get-go and will be aiming to put in a better show in the main rounds. Lim Sihyeon finished first with 694 points, which turned out to be the world record.
Paris Olympics 2024, Archery: Ranking round highlights
How things unfolded on the day
There was a slight delay before things got started and it was Lim Sihyeon who set the pace very early with 4 straight bullseyes in the first round. The second one saw the Korean add another 3 bullseyes to her tally and take a good lead.
For India, Ankita Bhakat started with a bullseye and a 10, and followed with 2 9’s and 2 8’s in the first round. For Deepika, the first round with a 10 but ended in poor fashion as she could hit just 6 with the last arrow of the first round. Bhajan would have a decent start to proceedings and found herself in the midfield of the pack.
The second round Ankita made a big jump to the 12th spot and then moved to 7th with a total of 3 bullseyes and 5 10’s during her next 12 arrow shots. Deepika’s poor start would come to haunt her and it took her till the third round for her to get her 1st bullseye.
Deepika was able to finish strongly in the first round as Ankita slowly started to slip down the rankings by the end of the first round. Team India was ranked 6th after Bhajan Kaur was able to score 330 points by the end of the first set of 36 arrows.
The second round saw Deepika start with a bullseye, and collect 57 points from the 7th round while Bhajan and Ankita scored 53 and 54 respectively. Ankita would hit 2 bullseyes to start the 8th round but ended it poorly as she got a 8 in the end.
Deepika got 55 and Bhajan hit 54 at the end of the 8th series of arrows. The collective effort from all three saw India enter the top 4 in the team rankings at this point in time. Ankita was able to reach 500 points and maintained her 11th spot while Deepika dropped down once again in the rankngs after the 9th series to be at the 30th spot. Bhajan made a comeback in the round scoring 55 points and making it to the 25th spot.
Bhajan moved up to 21 after the 10th series with Deepika also jumping to 28th spot. In the team rankings, India would reach the 4th spot in the team rankings as they edged past hosts France at this point. The 11th series saw India go level with Mexico in third as Ankita moved to 8th while Bhajan and Deepika jumped 19 and 26.
The final one saw Mexico edge past India by 3 points in the end as Ankita finished with 666 points. Bhajan had 659 points while Deepika rounded off the day with 658.
The final rounds of the archery competitions at the Paris Olympics will be held from July 28 to August 4.
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