Indian archers aim to end 36-year wait for Olympic medal
Paris (PTI) Bolstered by their best-ever show in the ranking rounds, Indian archers will look to end a 36-year-long wait for an Olympic medal with yet another good show in the medal rounds that will get underway with the women's finals here on Sunday.
Indian archery fraternity can hope for multiple medals from the historic Les Invalides arena following Dhiraj Bommadevara (seeded fourth) and Ankita Bhakat's (11th) exploits in the qualifiers.
For the first time after 12 years, India have a full six-member contingent as they vie for medals in all the five categories -- mixed team, men's and women's team, and individual events.
Having seeded straight to the quarters, the men's and women's teams need two wins to land a historic first Olympic medal in archery since their debut in the 1988 Seoul Games.
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India, who have never crossed the quarterfinal hurdles in the Olympics, mostly falling to archery powerhouse South Korea, will avoid their 'nemesis' first up.
While the men's team can avoid them till the gold medal clash, the women's may head into Korea in the semifinals.
India will take on the winners of France and the Netherlands in women's team quarterfinals on Sunday.
Shooting in front of home support, France, who were ranked fifth in the qualifiers, will be the overwhelming favourites to be India's quarterfinal opponents.
All eyes would be on the trio of Ankita Bhakat, Bhajan Kaur and Deepika Kumari and how they soak in the pressure in front of a partisan crowd.
The Indian women's team seemed to be ahead of the French rivals, having shot 1983 with an average of 9.18 compared to the hosts' 1972 (at 9.13).
France's Lisa Barbelin, Amelie Cordeau and Caroline Lopez are also familiar rivals for the Indians, having defeated them 3-2 in a friendly match at their preparatory camp in Jaux, 80kms north of Paris.
It was in Paris at the World Cup Stage 3 in 2021, the Indian women's team had defeated France in the semifinal en route to winning a gold.
Ankita and Deepika were part of the gold medal-winning Indian team with Bhajan replacing Komalika Bari here and they may take inspiration from that match three years ago.
India's most experienced woman archer Deepika, the former world No 1, had her worst ranking round from four Olympics, finishing lowly 23rd.
She struggled to get her 10s, managing just 28 perfect scores from 72 arrows and landed her arrows in the five and six rings on two occasions.
Deepika will once again play the role of a finisher and it will all boil down to how she brings her best in the crunch moment.
She has won a World Cup silver this year in Shanghai, making an incredible comeback less than 18 months after becoming mother.
If the women's trio manage to get going as a team then there would be no stopping them for a medal.
MEN'S TEAM MOST FANCIED
Games debutant Dhiraj's red-hot form and the combined five-Olympics appearance of Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav, who was in Tokyo too, makes the Indian men's team the most fancied to win a medal. The men's finals is scheduled on Monday.
In Shanghai World Cup, they had achieved a historical feat of upsetting the Koreans for the first time to win a gold.
Ranked third in the qualification round, India may face Turkey in the quarterfinals. The two teams have not met in the recent past and the challenge would be to conquer an unfamiliar opposition.
But for that to happen, sixth seeds Turkey, who boasts of reigning Olympic champion Mete Gazoz, will have to first need to get past 11th ranked Colombia in the pre-quarters.
The qualification round average arrow score for the men's team is an impressive 9.32 -- only Korea (9.49) and France (9.38) scored higher than them.
As far as Turkey are concerned they have not done well as a team and India should sail past them without much fuss.
France, who will take on the winners of Italy and Kazakhstan, the two lowly-ranked teams, are likely to be India's semifinal opposition if they manage to overcome Turkey.
India are seeded fifth as a mixed team where Ankita will partner Dhiraj and they will face an easy opening round against Indonesia who are seeded a lowly 12th.
They are in the same pool with China and Korea, who might be their potential quarterfinal and semifinal opponents respectively, should they progress.
Mixed team finals are slated on August 2.
Dhiraj, Deepika darkhorses
In peak form, Dhiraj will also hope to make it count in the individual rounds, where Deepika could also throw some surprises.
Dhiraj botched up his release twice in the quarters to return empty-handed from the Asian Games individual event and he would look to overcome the disappointment.
The individual elimination round will be held between Tuesday and Thursday, followed by the women's finals on August 3 and men's final on August 4.
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791 drone intrusions along IB reported in 2025: Defence Ministry
New Delhi (PTI): A total of 791 drone intrusions -- nine incidents along the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir and 782 along IB in Punjab and Rajasthan -- were reported during 2025, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.
"Effective employment of own spoofers and jammers along the western front significantly countered the drone threat," it said.
During this period, 237 drones were brought down by the Indian forces along IB sector -- "five drones with war-like stores, 72 drones with narcotics and 161 drones without any payload", the ministry said in a year-end review statement.
"A total of 791 drone intrusions (nine incidents along IB in J&K and 782 along IB in Punjab/Rajasthan) were reported during this year," it said.
The ministry said the security situation in J&K remains "firmly under control" due to the relentless efforts of the Indian Army.
People have chosen to follow the path of development and has been actively participating in large numbers in all government and Army-run initiatives, it said.
The 'whole-of-nation' approach has resulted in "reduction in violence levels, scaled down protests and zero incidents of stone pelting".
The statement also underlined Operation Sindoor carried out on May 7 eliminating at least 100 terrorists in response to the horrific Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 innocent civilians.
Indian armed forces had launched a series of precision missile strikes on nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir under this military action, which resulted in a four-day conflict between India and Pakistan.
The hostilities ended with an understanding on halting the military actions on May 10 following talks over the hotline between army officials of the two sides.
"After the DGMO talks on May 10 and May 12, the situation remains stable though unpredictable. However, there has been an increase in Pakistan attempts to surreptitiously infiltrate terrorists through the LoC (Line of Control) and IB sector," the ministry said in its review.
"Pakistan attempted to activate Poonch-Rajouri region as a "hotbed for proxy war during the year 2023-24," it said.
Therefore, the deliverables for 2025 were clearly defined in terms of maintaining robust anti-infiltration grid, relentless conduct of operations in mid and higher reaches to dislocate or neutralise terrorists and reduce local recruitment of cadres by creating a conducive environment for development, the statement said.
"Security situation in hinterland continues to witness consistent improvement since 2019," it added.
Functionality of training camps, presence of terrorists in launch pads and continuing infiltration attempts substantiate Pakistan's "persistent intent to prosecute a proxy war strategy", the ministry said.
"Significant efforts are being made by Pakistan to exploit the IB sector not only to smuggle weapons and narcotics using drones, but also to infiltrate large strength of terrorists," it said.
The ministry further said in consideration of "ongoing operational concerns", sanction for emergency procurement in the niche technology domains of drone and counter-drone, weapon systems, precision ammunition, electronic warfare systems, surveillance systems, etc., was accorded.
"A total of 29 capability development schemes have already been contracted and another 16 schemes are likely to be contracted in December 2025," it said in its review.
On manufacturing of drones and achieving 'Aatmanirbharta' in ammunition production, the ministry said that "515 Army Base Workshop and select Corps Z Workshops/EME Battalions have established credible drone manufacturing capability using in-house expertise and collaboration with subject matter experts".
"The facilities are state-of-the-art, which meet the quality requirements of drones. A total of 819 drones (surveillance -193, kamikaze/armed/weaponised -337, first pilot view -289) have been manufactured till date by EME units".
