Indian men's archery team bags Olympic quota, women misfire

Indian men's recurve archery team secured the Olympic quota for the 2020 Tokyo Games by storming into the quarterfinals of the World Championships but there was heartbreak in store for the fancied women's side here Wednesday.

The men's team of Tarundeep Rai, Atanu Das and Pravin Jadhav put up a superlative show, posting a 5-3 win over Canada to secure three-athlete quota for the first time since the 2012 London Olympics.

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, India had an individual entry in Das, who had made a prequarterfinal exit.

"We finally made it. We are gelling well as a team and looking forward to Tokyo now. This is the moment to keep going for 2020," two-time Olympian Rai, a member of the London Olympics, said.

"I'm sure the opponents were feeling exactly the same pressure. So the key was to keep calm and it worked well for us," the 35-year-old Army archer said.

But it turned out to be a day of contrasting fortunes for the women's recurve team as senior archer Laishram Bombayla Devi misfired once, while Komalika Bari exposed her inexperience costing them the match 2-6 against lower-seeded Belarus.

The women's team will have a last chance in 2020 World Cup Stage III in Berlin where top three in the secondary tournament will grab the final Olympic quotas.

Blaming luck, the three-time Olympian Bombayla said: "In practice, I was shooting well but there was misfortune and something happened during the competition and I misfired. It could have been an easy win. We will try our best next time."