Veteran archer Tarundeep Rai and his Army teammate Pravin Jadhav on Thursday returned to the Indian side for the Asian Championships, the continental Olympic qualifiers to be held in Bangkok from November 3-10. Tarundeep Rai and his Army colleague Jadhav were the two new additions to the men’s recurve team that won a silver medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, contributing to India’s record haul of nine medals.
The duo returned at the expense of two-time Olympian Atanu Das and Mrinal Chauhan following a five-day selection trial here. Former Olympian Tarundeep Rai, 39, had won a team silver at the World Cup Stage 1 in Antalya in April this year but could not make the cut for the Asian Games.
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Dhiraj Bommadevara is the third Army man in the recurve team as he retained his place alongside All India Police Sports Control Board’s Tushar Shelke who both were part of the silver medal winning team in Hangzhou. The women’s recurve team had one change with Tisha Punia replacing Prachi Singh.
This marks the third qualifying event for the Paris Olympics, following Berlin World Championships and Hangzhou Asian Games, where India failed to seal any quota spot. The Bangkok event will hand over Paris 2024 berths to team champions and two individuals per gender.
Recurve
Men: Tarundeep Rai, Dhiraj Bommadevara, Pravin Jadhav (all SSCB) and Tushar Shelke (AIPSCB). Women: Tisha Punia, Bhajan Kaur (both Haryana), Simranjeet Kaur (Punjab) and Ankita Bhakat (Jharkhand).
Compound
Men: Ojas Deotale, Prathamesh Fuge (both Maharahstra) and Abhishek Verma, Priyansh (Delhi). Women: Jyothi Surekha Vennam (AP), Aditi Swami (Maharashtra), Muskan Kirar (MP), Parneet Kaur (Punjab).