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regular-article-logo Friday, 03 May 2024

Atanu Das is back, Deepika Kumari falters

Deepika still can make a comeback for her fourth successive Olympics from an open trial for Paris 2024, slated in January next year

PTI Sonipat (Haryana) Published 21.02.23, 05:02 AM
Atanu Das.

Atanu Das. File picture

Former world No.1 Deepika Kumari, who was making a comeback after her maternity break, on Monday failed to make the Indian team for the Asian Games, World Cup and World Championships slated later this year.

The multiple World Cup gold medallist, who finished seventh in the first phase of the trials in Calcutta last month, ended outside the top eight in the women’s recurve event to miss the cut in the final leg of the three-day trials, which concluded at the SAI Sonipat here.

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On a day of upsets, reigning junior and former cadet world champion Komalika Bari and former national champion Ridhi Phor also finished outside the top-eight, which will be split into two teams for the six big events lined up this year — Asian Games, four stages of the World Cup and the World Championships.

Bhajan Kaur, Bengal’s Aditi Jaiswal, Ankita Bhakat and Simranjeet Kaur completed the top four who will compete in all the premier tournaments this year.

Deepika, however, still can make a comeback for her fourth successive Olympics from an open trial for Paris 2024, slated in January next year.

There was joy for Deepika’s husband Atanu Das as the India No.1 was back in the team after more than a year.

The two-time Olympian finished second behind Army man Dhiraj B, while old warhorse Tarundeep Rai and youngster Neeraj Chauhan completed the top four.

There was an upset of sorts in the compound section with multiple World Cup gold medallist Abhishek Verma finishing outside the top four. The 33-year-old Verma, who is world No. 9, finished fifth, which means he would not make it to the first choice team.

In case of “non-performance”, the archers who finished between No. 5 and 8 will get a chance, Indian archery high-performance director Sanjeeva Singh said.

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