Archery World Cup: Atanu Das finishes fourth in qualification

Two-time Olympian Atanu Das made a good comeback after almost two years as he qualified as the fourth seed and powered India to fourth place in the recurve team standings in Stage 1 of the Archery World Cup in Antalya on Wednesday.

Das finished behind local sensation Mete Gazoz, US veteran Brady Ellison and Li Zhongyuan who bagged the top-three places respectively after scoring 673 points.

He was sidelined after the Tokyo Olympics and his last appearance for India came in the Yankton World Cup Final in September 2021.

B Dhiraj (665 points) was the next best Indian at 15th place, while his veteran Army colleague Tarundeep Rai (662) completed the three-member lineup, taking 23rd place on the leaderboard.

The fourth-place standings earned them a direct place in the pre-quarterfinals where they will face the first-round winners between Japan (seeded 13th) and Switzerland (20th).

India, however, has a tricky road ahead as they are placed in the same half as the USA (fifth seed) and hosts Turkey who is top-seed.

The inexperienced women recurve archers had a forgettable outing in the qualification round as all of them finished outside the top 30.

At 32nd place, 17-year-old debutant Bhajan Kaur was the best among the Indians with her score of 648, which was way below Mexican top-seed Alejandra Valencia's 677.

Simranjeet Kaur (41st) and Ankita Bhakat (46th) were the next-best Indians with scores of 648 and 644 respectively as India bagged 11th place in the team standings.

Indian women's recurve team will begin its campaign against 22nd-seeded Brazil in the draw of 32.

Aditi Jaiswal failed to make the team event finishing a forgettable 56th with a score of 637. She will only compete in the individual section.