Indian archers will be eyeing spots in the 2024 Paris Olympics as they start their journey at the World Archery Championships on Tuesday, with the week-long event set to be the first qualifying event to the multi-sport extravaganza for Indian archers. The Berlin meet will offer 24 quota places for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The top three best-placed recurve archery teams in both men’s and women’s events will earn three quotas each, accounting for 18 (nine for men and nine for women) of the 24 quotas up for grabs. The highest-ranked individual recurve archers from the contingents which did not make it to the top three in team events can get the rest six (three per gender) quota places for their countries. A maximum of one quota will be given per country on the basis of individual performances. India has sent a total of 12 archers for the world championships, with Ankita Bhagat leading the Indian women’s recurve team, which made it to the quarterfinals back in 2021. Dhiraj Bommadevara, who secured a bronze as an individual player in stage 1 of the Archery World Cup in Antalya, will lead the men’s recurve team.
World Archery championships will also witness events in compound archery, which is not a part of the Olympics programme. Asian Games gold medalist Abhishek Verma, world championships silver medalist Jyothi Surekha Vennam and 17-year-old Aditi Gopichand Swami, who won a gold medal at World Archery Youth Championships earlier this month are some of the star compound archers worth watching at the Berlin meet.
India has won 11 medals at the world championships since 1931.
