India has fielded an archery team in every edition of the Olympics since their maiden entry at the quadrennial event in the Summer Olympic Games in 1988 at Seoul. Though the archers assigned for the task were all supremely talented and recipients of coveted medals at major International archery meets such as World Cups, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, an Olympic medal has eluded India’s grasp despite best efforts in the last three decades.
Cut to the present, the nation’s archery contingent for the Tokyo Olympics promises to break the duck. India has booked four Olympic quotas, with Pravin Jadhav, Atanu Das, and Tarundeep Rai representing the country in Men’s Recurve while Deepika Kumari being the solo female archer to have punched a ticket.
India is set to compete in four of the five archery events at Tokyo - Men's Recurve Individual, Men's Recurve Team, Women's Recurve Individual and Mixed team Recurve. The Women's Recurve team was also expected to seal their slot but an upset at the hands of lower-ranked Colombia at the final qualifier in Paris in June 2021 brought their mission to a screeching halt.
The Quint takes a look at the respective credentials and qualification journeys of the quartet gearing up for the almighty Tokyo test:
Deepika Kumari
Having turned 27 this June, Jharkhand’s Deepika Kumari has been the flagbearer of Indian archery for a long while now. Having regained the throne in the latest international rankings, she has nine golds, 12 silvers, and seven bronze medals across World Cups to her credit. A gem of an archer who received training at Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur, Deepika is a two-time Commonwealth Gold winner and double World Championships silver medalist as well.
She made a splash in the 2010 Commonwealth Games and went on to attain the top-ranked status in recurve archery in 2012. Pedestrian outings in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics proved a harsh reality check but Deepika weeded out the technical and mental shortcomings and bounced back stronger than ever.
Having clinched the gold medal at the 2018 World Cup in Salt Lake City, she shot her way to another gold in the women’s recurve event at the Asian Continental Qualifying Tournament in Bangkok, in turn securing a quota for the country at the 2020 Olympics. Interestingly, she was pitted against fellow bowwoman Ankita Bhakat who lost 6-0 in an all-Indian title clash.
Barring the odd blemish in the Paris qualifier where the Indian women’s recurve side crashed out of the competition to miss the Olympic bus, Deepika’s recent form has been nothing short of sensational. She hit the bull’s eye to score a perfect 10 in the shoot-off for the gold as India stunned giants Mexico in the Archery World Cup Stage 1 in Guatemala, the women's team first medal since 2014.
She passed the individual event with flying colors too, defeating America’s Mackenzie Brown in a nerve-wracking final. The hawk-eyed Deepika was a constant feature as India nabbed a hat-trick of golds in the women’s individual, women’s team, and mixed team competitions at the World Cup Stage 3 in Paris on Sunday.
Deepika Kumari will be competing at her third Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Image: PTI
Billed as a genuine medal contender in the women’s individual event, Deepika also makes a potent pair with husband Atanu Das for the mixed event, which will involve a male and a female participant and will register its Olympic debut in Tokyo.
In the individual event, she will face tribulations against top archers like Kang Chae-young, An San of Korea, Tan Ya-Ting of Chinese Taipei, Michelle Kroppen of Germany and USA’s Mackenzie Brown. It will no doubt be an arduous examination of her skill and smarts, but Deepika is in earnest to bring home glory in her third shot at the Olympics.
Pravin Jadhav
A nimble-footed athlete back in the day, Pravin Jadhav was asked to jump ship from running to the stock-still sport of archery after he threw 10 out of 10 balls in a ring from a distance. It was probably the first time he gained cognizance of archery’s existence, but ten years down the line Pravin will be boarding the flight to Tokyo as he teams up with Das and Rai in India’s men’s recurve roster as well as in an individual capacity.
The youngster was a member of the first Indian team to reach the finals of the World Archery championship since 2005. Although they had to contend with a silver in the 2019 showpiece event in The Netherlands, the second position was good enough to earn a team berth for the Tokyo Games. By winning this quota, they were eligible for single athlete quotas in the men's individual recurve event as well.
He was the least experienced archer of the Indian team in the aforementioned event, which also consisted of two Olympians, but Pravin rose to the occasion as he scored a flaming four 10s and five 9s in the nine rounds he shot in the semifinals.
Born in an impoverished family in the drought-affected Sarade village of Maharashtra, it is simply remarkable how Pravin has scaled such prominent heights in the face of adversity.
Tarundeep Rai
Tokyo-bound archer Tarundeep Rai brings tons of experience to the table as he represented India in 2004 Athens and 2012 London Olympics. He returned back empty-handed on both instances but is hopeful of an upswing in fortunes this time around.
The seasoned campaigner was part of the Indian men’s recurve team which came a cropper at the Archery World Cup Stage 1 in Guatemala last month, but the group made amends at the pre-quarter finals of the World Archery Championships on 23 June by defeating Canada 5-3. It was their last competition before the Tokyo Olympics and putting up a decent show in the dress rehearsal did their confidence a world of good.
Veteran Tarundeep Rai has a wealth of experience.
Image: PTI
The stalwart from Sikkim will draw curtains on his career after the quadrennial event, hence, it is his last-ditch endeavor to script history. If Rai, who became the first archer to win silver in the men's individual event in archery at the 2010 Asian Games, manages to finish on the podium in Japan's capital, it would indeed be a fitting farewell.
Atanu Das
There is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs. This thoughtful adage rings true in the case of Atanu Das who worked his fingers to the bone for a decade before he won the first individual World Cup gold at the Archery World Cup Stage 1 in Guatemala in May 2021.
Right from his junior days, Das has encountered many bumps on the road. From being rejected by the Tata Archery Academy to narrowly missing out on Olympics qualification for London 2012, Das has prevailed to remain among India’s finest male archers.
The World Cup in Guatemala in April 2021 added plenty of gloss to Das’s resume as he shot a perfect 30 in the deciding sets to trump Spain's Daniel Castro 6-4. Thanks to the heroics of Atanu and his spouse Deepika, who also captured an individual gold, India's recurve archers recorded their most phenomenal result at a World Cup with two individual golds, one team gold, and a team bronze.
The power couple will be look forward to replicating their dream run in Tokyo, however they’ll have to deal with a tough field comprising formidable archers from Korea (who were absent in the recent World Cup events), Chinese Taipei, China, and USA. Both of them will have to perform at their optimal best if India stands any chance of shattering the medal jinx.
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