Paris [France], July 25 : India's archery team, comprising Dhiraj Bommadevara, Tarundeep Rai, and Pravin Jadhav, directly qualified for the quarter-finals of the event at the Paris Olympics 2024 by securing a third-place finish with 2013 points in the Men's Archery Ranking Round on Thursday.
South Korea (2049 points) finished at the top of the rankings, followed by France (2025 points) in second place while China finished fourth with 1998 points. All four teams, including India, have directly qualified for the quarterfinals of the competition.
Dhiraj, who started in 11th place, executed an incredible comeback to finish in 5th place and Tarundeep Rai was as excellent with his opportunities and ended 14th, while India's third archer Pravin Jadhav struggled to get going as he finished in 39th place. However, their overall effort guided India to third place.
Tarundeep Rai's first round began subtly, with him scoring 55 points from his first six shots. He made two ten-pointers, then three straight nine-pointers, and finally an eight. He had a tremendous second round, bringing his total to 113 points with a bullseye, three back-to-back 10s, and a double 9-pointer. Tarundeep was then ranked joint 16th on the rankings. In the end, Tarandeep exhibited the most promising performance for India, finishing at 14th place with 337 points.
Dhiraj had a poor start, scoring 57 points on his first six shots. He failed to make a substantial impression in the second round, scoring only 53 points, followed by 56 in the third round. Despite beginning at 11th, Dhiraj's first-round performance sent him straight to 36th. However, Dhiraj's outstanding 56 points in the fourth round, including three 10-pointers, pushed him to 27th place.
Dhiraj then brought out his A-game, hitting three consecutive bullseyes in his fifth round, bringing his total to 279. Finally, Dhiraj shot two more consecutive bullseyes in the sixth round, bringing his total to 335 points after six rounds.
Pravin amazed many people by striking two bullseyes in four rounds of shots and finishing with a total score of 217. However, Jadhav was unable to retain the same level of composure and only scored one more bullseye in the subsequent rounds, finishing his first half with a total of 328 and ranking 37th.
The Indian contingent's second half was defined by Dhiraj's magnificent comeback. After dropping to the 40s, Dhiraj began the second half with a clear goal in mind: victory. After scoring 335 points in the first half, Dhiraj had already accumulated 173 points three rounds into the second half, including four bullseyes.
Dhiraj's keen vision allowed him to hit five more bullseyes in the following three rounds, finishing fourth with 346 points. Tarundeep Rai, on the other hand, lost some of his early momentum. He could only manage two bullseyes in his second half of shots after scoring six in the first. Tarundeep finished 14th with 337 points, the identical score at the end of his first-half throws.
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