Archer Tarundeep Rai
Credit: X/@OlympicKhel
Paris: A different year and another Olympics, but for Indian archers, the target will be the same -- fetching their first ever medal at the Games.
More or less regular at the Olympics since debuting back in 1988, the archers will kick off the nation's Paris campaign here on Thursday with the qualification rounds at the Les Invalides gardens here.
For the first time after London 2012, India will have a full six-member squad after both the men's and women's teams qualified on the basis of rankings. This means they will compete in all the five events.
Veterans Tarundeep Rai and Deepika Kumari, appearing in their fourth Olympics, will lead their young teammates, hoping to securing at least a top-10 finish in the qualification round to ensure a favourable draw.
Each archer will shoot 72 arrows and the scores in the qualification round of 128 athletes from 53 countries will decide the seeds for the main knockout competition beginning with the women's team finals on Sunday.
The qualifying round will be crucial for the Indians, who have often slipped in the seedings and ended up losing to heavyweights Korea, tipped to top the qualifications.
At the Tokyo Olympics, all the male archers finished outside the top-30 and got the ninth seeding as a team. Deepika, the sole woman archer there, also got a ninth place in rankings. Both ended up losing to top-seed Koreans in their respective quarters.
On form front, India will have high hopes from the men's team, which won a historic World Cup this year in Shanghai, upsetting Korea for the first time in a final.
They will have the experience in Rai and Tokyo Olympian Pravin Jadhav, while debutant Dhiraj Bommadevara will be on a high after beating Tokyo Olympics silver-medallist Mauro Nespoli of Italy en route a bronze at the World Cup Stage-3 in Antalya just a month back.
Individually, debutant Dhiraj is seen as a bright prospect as he has tasted success by winning the Asian Games team silver last year, albeit with different teammates.
Known to be "ice cool" in tough situations, Dhiraj would look to overcome the bitter memories of Hangzhou Asian Games where he botched up his release twice to exit in the individual quarters.
Deepika will fight against herself in a redemption act.
All eyes would be on her especially after her stunning comeback to win a World Cup Stage-1 silver in Shanghai in April this year, less than 16 months after becoming a mother.
Last time in Tokyo, An San of Korea was her nemesis as she went on to become the gold-medallist.
There is no An this time, but they have another Korean in Lim Si-hyeon who has defeated Deepika twice this year including in the Shanghai World Cup final.
"If she gets going, Deepika churns out perfect 10s at ease. But at the same time, she suffers from inconsistency and makes silly mistakes at crunch times. If she overcomes her mental blockade, there is no stopping her," India's high performance director Sanjeeva Singh said.
Dhiraj and Deepika, if they manage to top their ranking rounds, would be an exciting prospect for the recurve mixed team.
Dhiraj's composure and Deepika's skills would complement each other well at the highest level.
The women's team, on the other hand, will be low on experience barring Deepika.
Ankita Bhakat and Bhajan Kaur, who have been Indian regulars in this Olympic cycle and won a World Cup Stage-4 bronze here in 2023, are slated for their respective Games debut.
They have together won the Asian Games bronze last year and will look to draw inspiration from that.
Twenty-six-year-old Ankita, who hails from Bengal but represents Tata Academy, is relatively more experienced having won a clutch of World Cup team medals including a gold and silver, both in Paris in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
Controversial build-up
The archers Olympic build-up was marred by their foreign coach Baek Woong Ki's return to India after not getting accreditation to enter the Games.
The South Korean, who was contracted by the Archery Association of India for the Olympics at an approximate annual contract of Rs one crore, had accompanied the team to their 10-day preparatory camp in Jaux.
But he had to return after AAI failed to procure an accreditation for him as the sports body was engaged in a blame game with national federation (IOA).
While there would be no Baek, India will have men's and women's team coaches in Sonam Singh Bhutia (Army) and Purnima Mahato (Tata) whose archers have made the side.
In absence of Baek, it remains to be seen how the Indians will cope with crunch moments especially while taking on arch-nemesis Korea in the knockouts.
Quarterfinal jinx
Indian archers have never been able to go past the quarterfinal hurdle.
The script has been the same all these years, barring in Sydney 2000 where India could not qualify for the Games.
In terms of cumulative performance, the best ever show was at the last Olympics in Tokyo where the India men's team, mixed team and Deepika individually, all fell by the wayside in the quarters.
India were awarded the team quotas after topping the men's and women's rankings among non-qualified nations in the Olympic cycle.
The men's team finals will be on Monday, while the individual eliminations will get underway on Tuesday.
The mixed team finals are slated for next Friday, followed by women and individual finals over the same weekend.