Antalya, Apr 19: Making a comeback after almost two years, two-time Olympian Atanu Das qualified as fourth seed and powered India to fourth place in the recurve team standings in Stage 1 of the Archery World Cup here on Wednesday.
Das, who was sidelined after the Tokyo Olympics and made his last India appearance in the Yankton World Cup Final in September 2021, shot 673 points to finish behind local sensation Mete Gazoz, US veteran Brady Ellison and Li Zhongyuan who bagged the top-three places respectively.
B Dhiraj (665 points) was the next best Indian at 15th place, while his veteran Army colleague Tarundeep Rai (662) completed the three-member lineup, taking the 23rd place on the leaderboard.
The fourth place standings earned them a direct place in the pre-quarterfinals where they will face the first-round winners between Japan (seeded 13th) and Switzerland (20th).
India however have a tricky road ahead as they are placed in the same half as USA (fifth seed) and hosts Turkey who are top-seed.
The inexperienced women recurve archers had a forgettable outing in the qualification round as all of them finished outside top-30.
At 32nd place, 17-year-old debutant Bhajan Kaur was the best among the Indians with her score of 648, which was way below Mexican top-seed Alejandra Valencia’s 677.
Simranjeet Kaur (41st) and Ankita Bhakat (46th) were the next best Indians with scores of 648 and 644 respectively as India bagged the 11th place in team standings.
Indian women’s recurve team will begin its campaign against 22nd seeded Brazil in the draw of 32.
Aditi Jaiswal failed to make the team event finishing a forgettable 56th with a score of 637. She will only compete in the individual section. (PTI)
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