India to kickstart Olympic dream with Deepika, Tarundeep led archery team in action during ranking rounds

India will finally kickstart its Paris Olympics journey on Thursday with Deepika Kumari and Tarundeep Rai led archery contingent taking their first shots at the medal in the ranking rounds at Les Invalides.

For the first time since London Olympics 2012, India will be fielding their full team of six archers, putting up a challenge in all five medal events in men’s team/individual, women’s team/individual and mixed team categories, as per Olympics.com.

This round will be critical to how far Indian archery can go during this Olympics, as performances over 72 arrows for each of six archers will determine the seedings for individual and team events.

For men’s and women’s team competitions, the top four seeded teams from ranking rounds will get a direct quarterfinal qualification and teams between eighth to 12th seeds will face each other quarterfinal spots.

The ranking will also decide who makes the cut in the mixed team competition, with only top 16 pairs qualifying for the next stage.

For each country fielding a men’s and women’s archer each, the top scores in men’s and women’s categories are combined to decide the team’s seeding.

This will be Deepika Kumari’s fourth Olympic appearance and first one after becoming a mother.

Likewise, Tarundeep is also playing in his fourth Olympics, while teammate Pravin Jadhav is making his second appearance after Tokyo 2020. The remaining three, Dhiraj Bommadevara, Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat, are experiencing the Olympics for the first-time ever. ‘

Indian archers have never bagged an Olympic medal. Archery competition at Paris 2024 will start with the individual ranking round on July 25, a day before the Opening Ceremony. The remaining stages will be held from July 28 to August 4 at Les Invalides.

-PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS INDIA SCHEDULE TODAY: JULY 25, THURSDAY

All in Indian Standard Time (IST)

Archery

Women’s Individual Ranking Round (Deepika Kumari, Bhajan Kaur, Ankita Bhakat) – 1:00 PM

Men’s Individual Ranking Round (Tarundeep Rai, Dhiraj Bommadevara, Pravin Jadhav) – 5:45 PM.