Archery World Championships: Indian men, women teams one win away from securing 2020 Tokyo Olympic berths

Den Bosch: Indian men’s recurve team put up a solid show to go past Norway 5-1 and storm into the pre-quarterfinals at the World Archery Championships to be just one win away from securing an Olympic quota, on Tuesday. The trio of Tarundeep Rai, Pravin Jadhav and Atanu Das will next face Canada’s Eric Peters, Crispin Duenas and Brian Maxwell on Wednesday in a bid to secure the three-athlete quotas for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. [caption id=“attachment_2945758” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Atanu Das. Getty Images[/caption] The women’s recurve team also remained in the fray by qualifying sixth from a field of 55 nations for one of the eight Olympic quota spots. The top-eight seeding in the team event means that the Indian women avoid the first round match on Tuesday and go straight into a decider for the Olympic places where they face 11th seed Belarus on Wednesday. Laishram Bombayla Devi shot 664 to top the leaderboard among the Indians to secure 15th place overall in the qualifications, while Deepika Kumari was next best at 22th spot with a score of 660. Komalika Bari shot 650 to be ranked 40th in a field of 152 competitors. There was, however, some disappointment in store for India as they made a first round exit in the recurve mixed pair event when the duo of Rai and Bombayla lost to their Polish opponents 4-5 (17-19) in the shoot-off. The quarterfinalists in the recurve men’s and women’s team events at this World Championships will receive three-athlete quotas for the 2020 Olympics. They will be decided on Wednesday.