Archery: Bhajan Kaur secures Paris Olympics quota; India’s first in women’s event

Bhajan Kaur won India’s first 2024 Paris Olympics quota in women’s individual recurve archery at the final world qualifying tournament in Antalya on Sunday.

The 18-year-old Kaur became only the second Indian to win a quota place in archery at the Paris Games after Dhiraj Bommaderava in the men’s event.

Kaur secured the quota in style, beating Iran’s Mobina Fallah 6-2 in the gold medal match.

The Indian started with two nines with her first two arrows in the gold medal match, but still managed to clinch the set 28-26 to go 2-0 up.

She then shared the spoils with Fallah in the second set as both archers shot 29 apiece, before winning the third set 29-26.

The fourth set also ended 29-29, but it was enough for Kaur to walk away with a 6-2 win.

Kaur had earlier defeated Moldova’s Alexandra Mirca 6-2 to book a spot in the final.

Earlier in the day, Ankita Bhakat had won the 2024 Paris Olympics quota for India after qualifying for the quarter-finals with a 6-0 win over Monica Bidaure.

The quota was, however, transferred to Kaur as Bhakat bowed out in the quarter-finals following a 4-6 loss to eventual silver medallist Fallah and the former reached semi-finals.

Kaur’s quota win also means that India will have a representation in the mixed team event at the 2024 Paris Olympics as well with Bommadevara, having already secured an men’s individual recurve quota.

Meanwhile, the experienced Deepika Kumari was knocked out in the third round of the event on Sunday.

Both Kumari and Bhakat can still qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics, if India wins a team quota by the virtue of world rankings.