The Indian women's recurve archery team failed to earn a Tokyo 2020 quota after an early exit at the final Olympic qualifier in Paris on Sunday.
The team of Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat, Komalika Bari -- the second seed -- and favourite on equal footing with Mexico entering the challenge, lost in the second round to Colombia. The Indian trio went down 6-0 to Colombia in the round of 16 despite making an impressive start to the day.
In the qualification round, India and Mexico, the two favourites, lived up to the expectations and fought for every point. The Mexican team of Aida Roman, Alejandra Valencia and Ana Vazquez pipped the Indians by one point after the end of the qualifiers.
"Deepika Kumari was the most successful archer in the qualification round with a score of 679. Komalika Bari was placed seventh while Ankita Bhakat ranked 15th with scores of 662 and 651, respectively," Olympics official website stated in a release.
The second-seeded Indian team faced 15th seed Colombia in the pre-quarterfinal and lost the tight opening set 55-54.
However, the next two sets were a breeze for the Colombian team of Valentina Acosta Giraldo, Ana Maria Rendon and Maira Sepulveda as the Indians slipped badly and eventually lost the match.
With the defeat, Deepika Kumari will be India's lone woman archer at the upcoming Tokyo Games, after she won an individual Olympic quota at the 2019 Asian Archery Championships. The men's team of Tarundeep Rai, Atanu Das and Pravin Jadhav has already confirmed its presence in Tokyo by winning silver at the World Championships in Den Bosch, the Netherlands in 2019.
The last quota places for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be won on Monday at the final qualifier. These quotas do exclude the four invitational tickets reserved for universality invitations, which go to developing or small countries in the sport and will be confirmed just afterwards.
( With inputs from ANI )
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