Deepika, Ankita enter semis of Asian archery; secure Olympic quota

India secured an Olympic quota in archery's women's recurve event on Thursday after Deepika Kumari and Ankita Bhakat stormed into the semifinals of the 21st Asian Championships here.

Three individual places were up for grabs from the continental qualifications and Indian archers, who are competing without a flag due to the national federation's suspension, made a big statement with top seed Deepika and sixth seed Ankita making it to the last four to secure an individual Olympic berth.

Karma of Bhutan and Nguyet Do Thi Anh of Vietnam won the remaining two individual quota places at the Rajamangala National Stadium.

Deepika put up a flawless show to beat Nur Afisa Abdul Halil of Malaysia 7-2, Zahra Nemati (Iran) 6-4 and local girl Narisara Khunhiranchaiyo 6-2 to set up a semifinal clash against Nguyet.

"We wanted to give our best. But we were a little bit nervous earlier in the day. There was too much wind," Deepika said.

"We were desperate to win one more quota. We forgot about the past and everything. The whole team is very happy, at least we won one quota. This tournament has been very good show for us.

"Now we hope to earn a team quota from the Berlin stage of the World Cup next year," she added.

Ankita, on the other hand, defeated Lam Shuk Ching Ada of Hong Kong 7-1, Nguyen Thi Phuong of Vietnam 6-0 and Anastassiya Bannova (Kazakhstan) 6-4 to set up a last-four battle against Karma.

The Indian trio of Deepika, Ankita and Laishram Bombayala Devi competed under a neutral flag.

It is India's second Olympic quota place in archery after the men's recurve team of
Tarundeep Rai, Atanu Das and Pravin Jadhav