The seasoned Tarundeep Rai made a comeback to the Indian recurve men’s squad for the Asian archery championships, a continental Olympic qualifying event, to be held in Bangkok from November 3 to 10.
At the end of the six-day selection trials held at Sonepat on Thursday, Tarundeep replaced another experienced archer Atanu Das, who was part of the men’s team that won a bronze in the recently concluded Asian Games. Atanu finished outside the top-eight.
Tisha Punia was the lone induction in the recurve women’s squad. Deepika Kumari, who was sixth, could not make it the team.
In compound, Asian Games individual gold winners Ojas Deotale and V. Jyothi Surekha got exemption from the trials.
Silver medallist Abhishek Verma, whose father passed away midway through the trials forcing him to leave them, was selected considering his extraordinary past and present performances, said an Archery Association of India (AAI) official.
Prathamesh Fuge and Priyansh booked their places in the men’s squad, while Muskan Kirar made a return to the women’s squad.
The squad:
Recurve: Men: Tarundeep Rai, Tushar Shelke, B. Dhiraj and Pravin Jadhav; Women: Tisha Punia, Ankita Bhakat, Bhajan Kaur and Simranjeet Kaur.
Compound: Men: Ojas Deotale, Abhishek Verma, Prathamesh Fuge and Priyansh; Women: V. Jyothi Surekha, Muskan Kirar, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Swami
