Suwon [South Korea], June 4 : The 16-player strong Indian contingent is kickstarting its campaign at the Asia Cup stage three archery competition on Wednesday in Suwon here.
The 16 archers, eight men and eight women, will be playing in the third leg of the competition. Deepika Kumari, the three-time Olympian secured the gold during the first stage of the competition in Baghdad back in February, but she skipped this event keeping in mind preparations for the third stage of the Archery World Cup starting from June 18 in Antalya, Turkiye, as per Olympics.com.
The Archery World Cup in Antalya will be the qualification event for the Paris 2024 Olympics. India's women recurve archers are yet to secure an Olympic berth.
India's top compound archers, Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Swami and Abhishek Verma, all of them Asian Games gold medalists, are not in action in this event as well as they decided to give it a miss.
Compound archer Kushal Dala, who secured the men's team and individual silver medal in the Baghdad meet, is playing the stage three.
The Suwon event will feature 158 archers from 18 countries, including 81 men and 77 women.
In the first stage of the Asia Cup in Baghdad, India secured 14 medals - nine gold, four silver and one bronze. The second stage was supposed to be held in Thailand, but faced cancellation.
This third stage of the competition will conclude on June 9, just over one and a half months away from the Paris Olympics, which will start on July 26.
*Archery Asia Cup 2024 Suwon schedule
June 3, Monday: Official practice
June 4, Tuesday: Qualification round and individual matches for recurve and compound
June 5, Wednesday: Team/mixed team eliminations till semi-finals
June 6, Thursday: Individual eliminations and finals
June 8, Saturday: Finals for recurve and compound (team bronze and gold medal matches)
June 9, Sunday: Finals for recurve and compound (individual bronze and gold medal matches)
*Asia Cup 2024 Suwon: India archery team
Recurve men: Amit Kumar, Goldi Mishra, Rahul Kumar Nagarwal, Rahul
Recurve women: Bhargaviben Vargishkumar Bhagora, Kratika Bichpuriya, Basanti Mahato, Sharvari Somnath Shende
Compound men: Kushal Dalal, Krish Chandra Dev, Manav Ganeshrao Jadhao, Ganesh Mani Ratnam Thirumuru
Compound women: Maya Bishnoi, Kumud Saini, Tejal Rajendra Salve, Chikitha Taniparthi.
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