Archer Atanu Das makes Rio cut

Das will be the only Indian representative in the men’s category at the Rio Games, to be held in August. It will be Das’s first Olympics.

During the trial, the 24-year-old Kolkata lad edged out the experienced former Olympian duo of Jayanta Talukdar and Mangal Singh Champia to qualify for his maiden Olympic Games.

Having made the World Cup stage three semis at the Antalya, Das (653) had a bonus points of 1.5 and he qualified behind Talukdar (659) and Champia (649).

Later in the knockout rounds he defeated both Talukdar and out-of-form Champia. It was unfortunate that Champia could not make it to Rio as he had earned the quota for India by finishing among the top eight at the World Archery Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark last year.

The women’s recurve team of Deepika Kumari, L Bombayla Devi and Laxmirani Manjhi has already qualified for the individual as well as team event in Rio. However, Indian men’s team failed to qualify in the final Olympic qualification.