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. 

World number one Indian women’s compound team stormed into the final of the archery World Cup Stage II but the men’s team will return empty-handed from the tournament after losing the bronze medal clash to Australia in Yecheon on Wednesday. The trio of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Swami, that had clinched gold medal in World Cup Stage 1 in Shanghai leg last month, knocked out world number four USA 233-229 in the semi-final. India will now clash with world number seven Turkey in the gold medal clash on Saturday. Turkey had stunned top-seed and local favourites South Korea 234-233 in the other semi-final.

It was an overall easy sailing for the Indian women’s team, which got a bye into the quarters after finishing second in the qualifying round. They eliminated Italy 236-234 in the last-eight.

The world number one men’s team of Priyansh, Prathamesh Fuge and veteran Abhishek Verma, who had slipped to fourth in the qualifying round on Tuesday, lost to lowly-ranked Australia 133-133 (10-10*) in a shoot-off.

The Aussies, who are world ranked 21st, took the Indian trio by surprise starting with a 59, dropping just one point.

The Aussies team of Bailey Wildman, Brandon Hawes and Jonathon Milne continued its fine run and overcame a one-point deficit after the second round to make it 233-all after the regulation four ended.

The two teams were 30-all in the ensuing shoot-off but the Aussies edged out the inconsistent Indians by shooting two Xs (arrows closer to centre) to secure the bronze medal.

Having started their campaign with an easy 235-212 win over lowly-ranked Vietnam, India overcame tough competition from Denmark and top seed USA, winning both the matches in shoot-off.

Meanwhile, the veteran duo of Tarundeep Rai and Deepika Kumari finished fourth and sixth in their respective qualifiers as recurve competition got underway.

The 2010 Asian Games silver medalist Rai shot 681 points for a sixth spot in rankings, while Dhiraj Bommadevara narrowly missed a top-10 finish on X (closer to centre) count after five archers shot 678 with the Indian finishing 11th.

The Army duo’s solid finish ensured Indian recurve men’s team No 2 seeding in their title defence. India and top-seeded South Korea will begin their campaign at the opposite ends of the draw.

Indian men’s team shocked the world champions South Korea for the first time in a World Cup to take the gold in Stage 1 of the event in Shanghai last month.

Deepika missed the top-three finish in the rankings by just one point, shooting 677 as the Korean duo of Lim Sihyeon (685), Jeon Hunyoung (680) and Li Jiaman (678) took the 1-2-3 seedings.

The other Indians however fell way short with Bhajan Kaur (653 points) and Ankita Bhakat (646) were the next best Indians at lowly 34th and 49th places respectively. As a result, the women’s team seedings could not be better than six.

Rai and Deepika combined to get a cumulative 1358 points for the second spot behind South Korea in the recurve mixed team category.