Mumbai: Deepika Kumari, India’s most experienced female recurve archer, did not make the cut for this year’s Asian Games after the selection trials for the continental event and the next two World Cup stages concluded at Sonipat on Monday.
Unheralded Kirti Sharma from Haryana topped the women’s recurve section after the four-day trials at the SAI NCOE centre. She was followed by Kumkum Mohod, Ankita Bhakat and Deepika. While the top four are set to compete in the World Cup Stage 3 and 4 in June and July, only the top three earned the spots for the Asian Games to be held in Japan in September-October.
Paris Olympians Deepika and Ankita along with teenager Kumkum won the team gold at the World Cup Stage 2 in Shanghai last weekend.
These trials mark a continued shift of young rookie female recurve archers shaking up the domestic order and staking claim to spots in the national setup over some experienced faces.
Kumkum had made the cut for her maiden World Cup outing by topping the first set of trials in January-February in Kolkata. In Sonipat, it was Kirti’s turn to step up in the trials between the country’s top 16 archers who went through qualification rounds, round robin matches and elimination across the four days.
Among the men, Paris Olympian Dhiraj Bommadevara was head and shoulders above the field, followed by Neeraj Chauhan and Yashdeep Bhoge. Atanu Das, another experienced archer and Deepika’s husband, will also only compete in the World Cup after a fourth-place finish.
In compound, Jyothi Surekha Vennam expectedly booked her Asian Games berth by topping the trials. Telangana’s Taniparthi Chikitha and Maharashtra’s Prithika Pradeep complete the Asian Games line-up while Punjab’s Parneet Kaur will be part of the World Cup squad.
Sahil Jadhav was among the top men’s compound contenders, followed by Kushal Dalal of Haryana and Thirumuru Ganesh Mani Ratnam of Andhra. Rishabh Yadav finished fourth and will be only part of the World Cup group.
At the Hangzhou Asian Games three years ago, India had pocketed nine medals. The country’s archers had swept all the five compound titles. Jyothi had won three gold medals (individual, team and mixed team), and so did Ojas Deotale, who finished fifth in these trials. Aditi Swami, another young compound archer who broke through then also did not make the cut for this edition.
From the recurve men’s and women’s teams that won silver and bronze, respectively, in 2023, only Dhiraj and Ankita are set to compete in Japan. Deepika was also not part of the contingent in Hangzhou.
