Tokyo Olympics 2020: India men's recurve team book three Olympic quota places in archery, women falter against Belarus

New Delhi: India men’s recurve team of Tarundeep Rai, Praveen Ramesh Jadhav and Atanu Das beat Canada 5-3 in the second round of the World Archery Championship in Den Bosch, the Netherlands. By progressing to the quarter-finals, India have sealed three quota places for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. [caption id=“attachment_6802491” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Tarundeep Rai, Praveen Ramesh Jadhav and Atanu Das (C) celebrate after securing their Tokyo Olympics quota. Image courtesy: Twitter @virenrasquinha[/caption] India, ranked 11th as compared to sixth-placed Canadian team of Eric Peters, Crispin Duenas and Brian Maxwell triumphed in four sets. India won the first set 2-0, 56-55. India extended their lead to make it 4-0, by winning the second set 57-56 before Canada came back to make it 4-2 by winning the third set 58-54. The fourth set was split 57-57 between the two teams, allowing India to hold on to their two-point lead. The Indian men’s recurve team had earlier beaten Norway 5-1 in the first round, sharing points in a 55-55 first set before clinching the second and third sets outright. With the 59-56 and 57-56 wins in the second and third set, India won 5-1. They will now take on third-ranked Chinese Taipei in the last-eight - which is scheduled to take place on Thursday. The women’s team, ranked sixth in the world, also were in contention to book quota for the quadrennial event next year in Japan but lost 2-6 to 11th-ranked Belarus in the second round of women’s recurve. Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari and Komalika Bari went down 43-52, 44-52, 53-51 and 51-53 to the team of Karyna Kazlouskaya, Karyna Dziominskaya and Hanna Marusava. Belarus had won the first two sets convincingly with a dominant scoreline. India came back to win the third set by a slender margin but couldn’t force a shoot off. Both men’s and women’s competition in Tokyo Olympics are open to 28 quota places each at the event in Den Bosch, with the eight quarter-finalists assured of three athlete quota places each. The remaining four spots then go to the top four individual athletes from nations not qualified through the team event, with a single spot available from one country. There will be at least three more team places still available during the last quota tournament in Berlin next year, but chances of qualification dwindle with fewer spots available then.