Which Indian archers impressed at Paris Olympics 2024?

Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat reached the mixed-team semi-finals at the Paris Olympics.

The 2024 Paris Olympics have been eventful for the Indian contingent and quite so for the archers that have represented the nation. Six Indian archers qualified for the Olympics this time around, a gain from only four who represented the country in this sport back at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

While India failed to bag a medal in any of the different archery categories, a few individuals have enough reason to hold their heads high. While not all six were able to perform to their best, a few in both the men’s and women’s categories made the nation proud by competing well against strong opposition.

Indian ace and former World No. 1 Deepika Kumari was involved in multiple matches against some formidable opponents. The female representatives from India in archery all have enough reason to hold their heads high, while the men tried their best and produced some respectable results too.

Here we look at the Indian archers who impressed most at the Paris Olympics.

Deepika Kumari

The 30-year-old archer had quite a bit of aspiration on her shoulders heading into the Paris Olympics, but was not helped by a difficult draw. In the first round of the women’s event, Kumari had to fight hard to defeat Estonian archer Reena Parnat in what proved to be a challenging clash.

However, the archer kept her cool to get a clutch 6-5 win via a shoot-off and setup a tie against 18-year-old Dutch archer Quinty Roffen. Kumari showed why experience matters in her clash against the Dutchwoman, picking up a decisive win by a 6-2 margin. She was later made to play against German archer Michelle Kroppen in the Round of 16.

Kroppen, who bagged a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, came into this clash with a lot of momentum. However, Kumari maintained her composure and did not let the occasion rattle her. She picked up a gritty 6-4 win to move onto the quarter-finals, where she faced South Korean star Nam Su-hyeon.

Kumari won two of the first three sets against Nam to put the Korean archer under pressure. But, Nam bounced back strongly to win the last two sets by a 29-27 point margin, knocking out the Indian archer. In the women’s team category, Kumari was able to get a bye until the quarter-final – where her team faced an embarrassing loss to the Netherlands.

Bhajan Kaur

The highest-seeded female Indian archer, Bhajan Kaur, had quite an eventful outing at the Paris Olympics. In the Round of 64 clash, she faced Indonesian archer Syifa Kamal, which turned out to be a pretty comfortable tie for her. Kaur dominated her way to a 7-3 win and moved on to the Round of 32.

Here, she faced Poland’s Wioleta Myszor and produced arguably the best individual performance by an Indian archer at the 2024 Olympics. Kaur outclassed the Polish athlete and picked up a 6-0 win to move onto the Round of 16. But here, she faced tough competition from Indonesian archer Diananda Choirunisa.

Even though Kaur managed to win the final set by a 27-26 margin, she narrowly missed the chance to win the match in the shoot-off and lost 6-5. As a result, Kaur’s singles journey came to an end.

Dhiraj Bommadevara & Ankita Bhakat

After winning the bronze medal in Stage 3 of the 2024 Archery World Cup in the mixed team category alongside Bhajan Kaur, Dhiraj Bommadevara turned up at the 2024 Olympics as the No. 4 seed in the men’s singles category. Despite being eliminated in the second round, Bommadevara played a contest of nip and tuck against Eric Peters of Canada 5-6, which was a joy to watch for all archery enthusiasts.

Ankita Bhakat lost her first singles match to Wioleta Myszor, but her partnership with Dhiraj in the mixed team category proved to be a success. Bommadevara and Bhakat exceeded expectations by going far into the mixed team category and started their tournament with a comfortable 5-1 win over Indonesian duo Arif Pangetsu and Diananda Choirunisa in their first clash.

The Indian duo then defeated the Spanish mixed team of Pablo Acha and Elia Canales by a 5-3 margin, earning a place in the semi-finals. However, they faced the formidable South Korean duo of Lim Si-hyeon and  Kim Woo-jin. The Korean archers went away with a 6-2 win, leaving Bommadevara and Bhakat to play in the bronze medal match.

However, failing to resist the pressure, the two were ousted by the USA duo of Brady Elison and Casey Kaufhold in this one by a 6-2 margin, finishing fourth.

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