New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) Seasoned archers Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das failed to make it to the Indian men’s and women’s squads for the upcoming Asian Games in Japan as the Archery Association of India (AAI) opted for Dhiraj Bommadevara, Ankita Bhakat, and Jyothi Surekha Vennam as part of the strong and youthful teams.

Deepika, who led India to the gold medal in the Shanghai World Cup a few days back, and Atanu were picked for the next two World Cup Stages but could not make it to the all-important 2026 Asian Games, which will be held in Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya, Japan, from September 19 to October 4. Both Deepika and Atanu fopurth in the trials conducted by the federation and thus lost out on the Asian Games.

Dhiraj Bommadevara, who won a silver in the Team Championship in the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, youngster Neeraj Chouhan, and Yashdeep Bhoge will comprise the Indian men’s recurve team for the Asian Games. While Bommadevara is quite experienced participating in his second successive Asian Games, Chouhan is in great form, having set a new national record in the Men’s Recurve event by scoring 692/720 at the National Archery Championships, surpassing Olympian Tarundeep Rai’s previous record. Bhoge won gold for India at the Asian Archery Championship in 2025.

In the women’s recurve section, teenager Kumkum Anil Mohod, Kirti Sharma, and Ankita Bhakat, the 27-year-old archer from Kolkata, were part of the Indian team that won a bronze medal in the Team Competition in the Hangzhou Asian Games 2022.

Kumkum and Ankita, along with Deepika, were part of the Indian team that won a historic gold medal in the women’s team competition at the Archery World Cup Stage 2 in Shanghai earlier this month, upsetting home favourite China in the final.

Deepika Kumari, Kumkum Anil Mohod, and Ankita Bhakat had already defeated 10-time Olympic gold-medal-winning nation Korea earlier in the week, 5-1 – the margin of victory almost as surprising as the result itself.

There were a couple of surprises in the compound archery team with the experienced Ojas Deotale and Abhishek Verma, who won gold and silver, respectively, in the Hangzhou Asian Games, missing out and opting for Sahil Jadhav, Kushal Dalal, and Thirumuru Ganesh Mani Ratnam to make up the men’s team. Another major omission was defending Asian Games champion Ojas Deotale, who finished fifth in the selection trials.

World No. 3 Jyothi Surekha Vennam will spearhead the women’s compound team after her triple-medal haul at the 2023 Asian Games, where she won gold in the individual, team, and mixed events. She will have Chikitha Taniparthi and Prithika Pradeep as her teammates at the Asian Games.

India had bagged nine medals — five gold, two silver, and two bronze medals — in archery at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

The selected squad will also represent India at World Cup Stages 3 and 4, scheduled in Antalya, Turkiye, in June and Madrid, Spain, in July, respectively.

Indian squad for Asian Games:

Recurve men: Dhiraj Bommadevara, Neeraj Chauhan, Yashdeep Bhoge.

Recurve women: Kirti Sharma, Kumkum Anil Mohod, Ankita Bhakat.

Compound men: Sahil Jadhav, Kushal Dalal, Thirumuru Ganesh Mani Ratnam.

Compound women: Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Chikitha Taniparthi, Prithika Pradeep.

–IANS

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