Dream over! Indian men's archery team fails to qualify for Rio Olympics

Antalya: India will not have a men’s archery team to compete in the Rio Games as it failed to make the cut in the Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament held on the sidelines of the World Cup Stage 3 at the Konyaalti Beach Park in Antalya on Thursday The Indian trio of Atanu Das, Jayanta Talukdar and Mangal Singh Champia, who got the top seeding, lost to lower ranked Malaysians 4-5 in the shoot-off (27-28) in the quarters to be out of Rio reckoning. [caption id=“attachment_398662” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Jayanta Talukdar.Getty Images[/caption] Needed to finish among top three to qualify, India found themselves in a favourable draw of 16 as it sweat past home challengers Turkey 4-5 in the shootoff (28-27). But Champia’s poor form continued as the team squandered a 2-0 lead to lose to Malaysia in the quarters. India however will be able to compete in the individual men’s recurve as Champia incidentally had grabbed a solitary quota place in the World Championship in July last year. But with his lacklustre form Champia may miss out on the Rio-bound squad after a separate trial will be held by the Archery Association of India to pick the individual member. Women’s recurve section however will have a full strength squad after it had made the cut in Denmark last year.