Kolkata: The Indian women’s recurve archers will now have to wait for the world rankings to earn team Olympic quota places after failing to get one at the Final Olympic Qualifier at Antalya, Turkey, on Friday.
With four semifinalists in the recurve section set to get team quotas, the India, comprising Deepika Kumari, Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat needed two wins in the elimination round to seal the Paris berth.
More than 300 recurve archers from 80-plus nations are competing in the final qualifying event for the Paris Olympics.
Having qualified as fifth seed, India even got a bye into the pre-quarters but suffered a 3-5 loss to lower-ranked Ukraine.
The world No. 8 India side, who are 10 notches above Ukraine in the global rankings, put up a poor show to blow away a 3-1 lead and went down 3-5 (51-51, 55-52, 53-54, 52-54).
As per the new qualification rule, the top-two nations in World Archery Rankings, who did not make the cut from the qualifiers, will make the cut before the Games.
The women’s team are currently ranked No 8. South Korea, Germany, France, Mexico, USA, who are all ahead of India in rankings, have already qualified. With World No. 2 China and No. 7 Chinese Taipei, the two nations ahead of India, qualifying at this event, India’s path was made easier.
India thus are now the No. 1 side in rankings criteria after all the top seven sides had qualified. After a drawn first set, India bounced back to win the second set.
But Ukraine pulled back to win third set by one point and level at three-all going into the fourth set. Two eight-point shots cost India dearly as Veronika Marchenko, Anastasia Pavlova and Olha Chebotarenko edged them out by two points to seal the quarters berth.
While Bhajan hit two sevens and one eight, Ankita fired one seven in the four-set contest.