Tokyo Olympics 2020: Indian women's archery team's qualification hangs in balance due to travel ban

Kolkata: The national archery federation is hopeful that the travel ban on India will be lifted by the time stage 3 of the World Cup is held in Paris in June and the Indian women’s recurve team will get to compete in the crucial tournament. The stage 3 of the World Cup, slated from 21-27 June, is the women team’s last chance to qualify for the Olympics. India have a team quota in the men’s event and an individual quota in the women’s event for the Tokyo Games but the fate of the women’s team hangs in balance. “I don’t think that it will continue. Hopefully the restrictions will be lifted. We will take a call depending on the situation,” Archery Association of India president Arjun Munda said during a virtual felicitation of the archers, who won three gold medals and one bronze at the recently-concluded World Cup Stage 1 in Guatemala City. The women team had won gold medal in Guatemala City. “We will provide them full support and there will be no let up in our preparation for the Olympics. We will make a collective decision depending on the situation (before the Stage 3 World Cup).” According to a World Archery official there would be no change in plan for the final Olympic trials “as a minimum number of countries need to participate and India would miss out on a women’s team quota in case of non-participation.” Incidentally, it’s the women’s team which stands the best chance for an elusive Olympic medal. India missed out on more medals from the World Cup as they did not send the compound teams that were withdrawn just before boarding the flight to Guatemala City after their head coach tested positive for COVID-19, something that turned out to be a “false report”. Defending the decision, Munda said, “We had to take a call depending on the (first) report and it was too late by the time it was verified.” “We want more and more medals for the country but who would have taken the responsibility if anyone had tested positive in transit. We did not want to take any risk and had to take the stern decision,” Munda added.