Qualification day in Archery heralds a glorious start to India’s Paris 2024 campaign

Even though the activity has been part of human civilisation since the stone age and is an integral part of Indian mythology, archery in India is still thought of as some medieval pastime.

Archery in the modern Olympics has been a sport which has not had a smooth ride. The shooting of targets with 10 concentric rings only started in the 1972 Munich Olympics, with only male and female individual events.

This trend changed in Seoul (88), South Korea, unanimously considered as the behemoth of modern recurve archery. The qualification round, as we know it today, with both men and women, individual and team events begun there and since then, India has been regularly sending teams to the Olympic games.

Indian men’s team’s record at the Olympics is as follows

As you can clearly see, the record inspires little confidence. Out of our previous 5 attempts, we have won a sum total of just one match- vs Kazakhstan in the first round in Tokyo.

It is clear why there is so much scepticism surrounding recurve archery in India, notwithstanding the fact that our archers regularly win world cup medals.

Indian women’s team’s record at the Olympics is as follows

We keep talking about having to win 2-3 matches to win a medal. Our women’s team has only won 2 matches across 4 Olympics- vs GB in 2004 and Colombia in 2016.

It is with this background that we need to observe the events and results that unfolded on the opening day of competition in Paris 2024. Indian’s men and women’s teams in recurve archery finished in the top 4 (among 12 teams).

These scores are by far the best ever scores by an Indian men’s and women’s team at the Olympics. The men, especially Dhiraj Bommadevara, made a stirring comeback in the second half of the 72-arrow competition (he topped the 2nd half with 346 out of a maximum 360), jumping from 6th to 3rd place. The women were consistent throughout and finished 4th.
As a result, they have gained automatic entry into the quarterfinal stage of the knockout competition.

From there, they will have to win atleast 2 matches to win that elusive medal for India in archery.

The mixed team of Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakatfinished in 5th place and will have a relatively tougher route to the medal rounds with Indonesia, China and Korea along the way.

India’s route for a potential medal in men’s, women’s and mixed team

The team events are scheduled on 28th July (Sunday 5:45 PM) for the women’s team, 29th July (Monday 6:30 PM) for the men’s team and 2nd August (Friday 1:20 PM 1st round and 5:45 PM QF) for the mixed events.

In previous editions, Deepika (8th in London and 9th in Tokyo) had ranked higher than what Ankita Bhakat achieved here.

However, Ankita’s score is the best ever by an Indian female archer at the Olympics. Similar, Dhiraj too shattered the previous best mark by an Indian.
His performance in the 2nd half was akin to Saurabh Chaudhary’s qualification performance in air pistol in Tokyo.

The old warhorse, Tarundeep Rai, whose debut was in Athens 2004 at the age of 20, too rolled back the years with a stunning score of 674, finishing 14th.

If not for Dhiraj’s show, Rai’s 674 could have been India’s best ever at the Olympics. Pravin Jadhav’s 658 too was not bad by any means. But one hopes, he can improve his game in the team tournament.

In women’s individual qualification, all our 3 archers were very consistent (except for a 5 or 6 here and there) and finished in the top 24. Surprisingly Deepika was placed lowest at 23rd with a score of 658.
One stark contrast seen between the men and women’s competition was the number of personal bests (PB) and season’s bests (SB) among the women. I guess conditions were more still when the women were shooting.

You can see the toughest opponents in the quarters of each of our archers in the individual knockout rounds (these are based on latest results and overall pedigree- but you can never be 100% sure)

A cursory look will tell you that the draw is relatively easier for the women. However, there are no easy games at the Olympics and if we can replicate our world cup form here, a medal or two might come.
All said and done, whatever happens in the coming days, qualification day at the Esplanade des Invalides will live long in the memory of Indian sports fans, as the day Indian archery probably turned a corner.

Written by Sundaram