KOLKATA: Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari will be the first Indian couple to take part in the same event in an Olympic Games as both recurve archers earned their tickets to the Tokyo Games after the 3-day final selection trials concluded at Army Sports Institute in Pune on Monday.
Atanu and Deepika, who got married after a two-year courtship last year, finished among the top three to ensure their berths.
The recurve team of Pravin Jadhav, Atanu and Tarundeep Rai, who helped India secure a quota in the Olympic team event by winning the World Championship silver medal in Netherlands’ ‘s-Hertogenbosch city in June 2019, will put forth India’s challenge in Tokyo.
While Services’ Pravin topped the men’s trials with eight points, Petroleum Sports Promotion Board’s Atanu Das (7.5 points) and Services’ Tarundeep Rai (6) came second and third.
It was an all-Jharkhand affair in women’s section with Deepika (9 points) topping the trials. Ankita Bhakat (7) and world cadet champion Komolika Bari (5.5) took the second and third spots. However, the Indian women have won only one quota place so far and if it remains that way, Deepika will be India’s sole woman archer in Tokyo. But they stand to win a team quota of three slots in the final Olympic qualifying tournament which will be held in Paris from June 18-27.