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The Times of India
The Times of India
Sport
Archiman Bhaduri | TNN

Atanu back in India archery side, no place for Deepika

KOLKATA: Olympian Atanu Das made a roaring comeback to the India side after being out for almost a year since losing to Japan's Takaharu Furukawa in the Tokyo Olympics. "It was quite a hard time for me to sit out after playing for the country for almost 10 long years," a relieved Das told TOI from Sonipat after the conclusion of the four-day selection trials on Monday.

The country's top 16 archers fought it out to be in the India side by finishing among top four. These four recurve and compound archers will represent the country in all premier international events this year, that includes the rescheduled Hangzhou Asian Games, the four stages of the World Cup (Shanghai, Antalya, Turkey, Medelline, Colombia and Paris) and the Berlin World Championships, a quota event for Tokyo Olympics 2024.

Along with Das, who finished second behind Armyman B Dhiraj, old warhorse Tarundeep Rai and youngster Neeraj Chauhan made up the men's recurve side.

Das had taken a break and went on vacations with wife Deepika Kumari. The duo entered a new phase of life with the birth of their daughter in December, 2022. Das then got down to train in different conditions and practised in Shillong, Pune, Jabalpur and Kolkata. He also focused on endurance and strength building too.

The results showed when Das defeated Gurcharan Besra to win the gold in National Games in Ahmedabad in October, 2022. "I never lost confidence, but felt the need to self-introspect. You can say I am an upgraded version of myself now," he said.

However, former world No. 1 Deepika could not make the India squad while making a comeback after her maternity break.

The multiple World Cup gold medallist, who finished seventh in the first phase of the trials in Kolkata last month, ended outside top eight in the women's recurve event to miss the cut.

However, Deepika still can make a comeback for her fourth successive Olympics from an open trial for Paris 2024, slated in January next year.

Kolkata youngster Aditi Jaiswal put up a great show to make the women's recurve side along with Bhajan Kaur, Ankita Bhakat and Simranjeet Kaur while former cadet world champion Komalika Bari and former national champion Ridhi Phor missed out.

Aditi, who trains under Olympian Rahul Banerjee at Kolkata Police DRB Archery Academy in Kolkata, will also represent the country in the upcoming Asia Cup Stage I which will be staged in Taipei from March 14-19.

In the compound section, multiple World Cup gold medallist Abhishek Verma finished fifth in the trials to miss the cut in the first choice men's side.

Only in case of 'non-performance', the archers who finished between No. 5 and 8 will get a chance to make the first team, Indian archery high performance director Sanjeeva Singh stated.

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