India’s men’s recurve team crashed out of the Archery World Cup 2023 after going down to Korea in the quarterfinals here on Thursday.
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India’s trio of Dhiraj Bommadevara, Atanu Das, and Neeraj Chauhan went down 0-6 (54-55, 56-57, 54-59) to the top-seeded Korean team of Lee Woo Seok, Kim Je Deok, and Kim Woojin. The eighth-seeded Indian men’s recurve team started their Archery World Cup 2023 campaign with a 5-3 (57-57, 56-58, 57-56, 58-51) win over Chinese Taipei.
At the same time, seeded fourth in the team qualification, the Indian women’s team of Simranjeet Kaur, Avneet Kaur and Ankita Bhakat put up a disappointing performance in the first round itself as they went down 1-5 (54-57, 57-57, 50-52) to lower-ranked Indonesia. In the recurve team events, India’s hopes will now rest on the mixed pair of Dhiraj Bommadevara and Simranjeet Kaur. They got a bye into the second round (pre-quarterfinals) as they finished fifth in the qualifiers.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Indian men’s and women’s compound teams also crashed out of the Archery World Cup 2023 with quarterfinal defeats. The third-seeded Indian women’s team comprising Jyothi Surekha, Aditi Swami, and Avneet Kaur went down 228-231 to the sixth-seeded Turkish team. While the fifth-seeded team of Ojas Deotale, Rishabh Yadav, and Prathamesh Jawkar also crashed out of medal contention with a 231-234 loss to Mexico.
Meanwhile, country’s No. 1 archer and two-time Olympian Atanu Das could only manage a score of 638 to finish 44th. While youngster Neeraj Chauhan shot the same number to finish 47th. Experienced Tarundeep Rai did not make it to the team as he finished 57th with 631 points. The 39-year-old Rai, the 2010 Asian Games silver medallist, shot four sixes and five sevens in a poor performance. After failing to make it to the team, Rai will not have an easy road ahead in the individual event. He will face Tokyo Olympics double gold medalist Kim Je-deok in the first round.
