Ankita Bhakat outplayed Gabrielle Monica Bidaure of Philippines to enter the quarterfinals of the Final Olympic Qualifier here on Sunday, and the effort also helped her seal an individual quota in women’s archery for next month’s Paris Games. Ninth seed Ankita cruised to a 6-0 (26-23, 28-22, 28-23) win over her 40th seeded rival in the pre-quarterfinals. India thus have secured individual quotas in both men’s and women’s sections. Dhiraj Bommadevara had secured the men’s individual quota from the Asian qualifying leg earlier.
In the earlier rounds, Ankita had defeated Shelley Hilton 6-4 (24-26, 25-25, 28-20, 25-25, 27-25) and Mikaella Moshe 7-3 (28-25, 25-27, 27-27, 28-25, 26-25), both from Israel, to make it to the last-16.
Ankita will face top-seed Mobina Fallah of Iran in the quarters.
Third seed Bhajan, who got a bye into the round of 32, overcame Urantungalag Bishindee of Mongolia 6-2 (29-27, 28-26, 26-29, 27-24) is also in the fray for a podium finish and will take on Urska Cavic of Slovenia in her pre-quarters.
The individual quotas are allotted to the top-eight nations. Each country gets one individual quota.
Deepika falters
Earlier, premier Indian archer Deepika Kumai, who qualified as second seed, suffered an embarrassing opening round defeat to little known Yaylagul Ramazanova of Azerbaijan.
The former world No. 1 won the opening two sets to lead 4-0, but her shooting went horribly wrong in the next two where she scored 23 and 24 points respectively, landing five of her six arrows in the outer rings.
She shot thrice in the eight-point red ring, once in the seven-point red ring and while another hit the outer six-point ring as Yaylagul gleefully brought it level at 4-4.
The Azerbaijan archer then won the fifth set with a solid display for a splendid win 6-4 (26-28, 25-27, 23-26, 24-25, 27-29).
“There was no equipment malfunction but she had poor release after failing to anchor her bow properly. It could be pressure or something else,” a team official told PTI.
Team quotas not out of grasp
Indian men’s and women’s teams have failed to seal the quotas from the Final Olympic Qualifier. The men’s team had qualified as top seed but lost to Mexico in the quarterfinals. The women’s team, who got fifth seed in rankings round, exited in the pre-quarters.
But they still can earn Paris Games berths if they maintain their World Rankings till the cutoff date of June 24.
The top two nations from among the countries who have not got team quotas will make the cut for the Paris Olympics on June 24 after the third stage of the World Cup beginning here on Tuesday.
The men’s team is currently No. 2 with 243 points behind South Korea who have already qualified.
Chinese Taipei and Italy, who are behind India in the rankings, have already qualified. India’s nearest competitors are China (204 points) and Japan (190).
The women’s team is currently No. 8 behind South Korea, China, Germany, France, Mexico, USA and Chinese Taipei — all these seven nations have already got team quotas.
It means the Indian women’s team with 185 points are at the top of the rankings race with Indonesia (179.5), Colombia (152) and Italy (150) vying for the second spot.
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