Meet the women archers who will represent India in Rio Olympics

A three-member Indian womens archery team comprising Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi and Laxmirani Majhi was today named for the Rio Olympics after a series of selection trials in the last three months.

The women’s trio will compete in the individual events as well as team event at the Rio Games in August. Te Country’s women archers earned three individual berths and a team quota by virtue of the teams performance at the World Championships in Copenhagen last year.

After rigorous six stages of selection trials and training over three-and-a-half months starting in January in Jamshedpur, then at Delhi and finally in Bengaluru, the Archery Association of India selected the three-member womens team for the Rio Olympic Games, the Archery Association of India said in a release.

AAI also announced a three-member mens team consisting Jayanta Talukdar, Atanu Das, Mangal Singh Champia for the third stage World Cup in Antalya, Turkey, next month in order to have a shot at Olympic berths. India has earned one individual spot for the Olympics in mens archery during the World Championships last year.

If the mens team qualifies at Antalya, it will also secure two more individual berths for the Olympics, in addition to the one spot already secured. In the event the mens team does not qualify in Antalya, AAI will conduct a selection trial to pick one archer from among the three to compete in the mens individual event at the Rio Olympics.

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The AAI said that during the three-and-a-half month period of selection trials and training, the top six men and women archers participated in Kahamran Bagatir Sping Arrow Tournament in Antalya, Turkey and also had match practice with several other archers from European nations. The top four men and women archers then participated in the 1st Stage World Cup at Shanghai, China.