Kolkata: Olympic team quota place continued to elude Indian archers. After the women, the men’s recurve team too failed to bag it for the Paris Olympics even after making a bright start in the Final Qualifier event in Antalya, Turkey, on Saturday.
The Indian trio will also now have to wait to earn a Paris berth through their world rankings ahead of the cut-off date.However, they stand a comfortable chance to qualify through that path as the team is currently ranked No. 2, behind South Korea. They will surely qualify if they manage to hold on to that spot till the end of World Cup Stage III next week.
Dhiraj Bommadevara had already bagged an individual quota for India but that would have got upgraded to team quota (three places) had they finished on the podium in this event.
The trio of Tarundeep Rai, Dhiraj and Pravin Jadhav made a great start qualifying for the elimination stage as the top seeded team with 2018 points.
India began well with defeating Luxembourg in straight sets 6-0 in the second round after getting a bye in the first round.
However, in spite of gaining a healthy 4-0 lead after two sets, India exited in the last-eight stage, going down to Mexico in the shoot-off in a dramatic fashion 4-5 (57-56, 57-53, 55-56, 55-58) (26-26*).
With just a draw in the third set required to advance into the semifinal, India lost by a point as Mexico went on to level four-all after winning the fourth set and sealed it by shooting closer to the centre in the shoot-off.