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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Bihar CM Nitish Kumar takes oath as Rajya Sabha member
New Delhi (PTI): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday took oath as a member of Rajya Sabha, marking the end of his two-decade rule in the eastern state and paving the way for a new chief minister.
The oath was administered by Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan in his chamber at a brief ceremony. The Chairman later welcomed him as a member of the Upper House and also on his return in Parliament.
Kumar took the oath in Hindi in the presence of Union Minister J P Nadda, who is also leader of the house, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Panchayati Raj Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ram Nath Thakur and Minister of State for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal.
Bihar deputy chief minister Samrat Chaudhary was also present at the oath-taking.
JDU leader and party's working president Sanjay Kumar Jha, Congress chief whip in Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh, besides BJP MP and former union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy and BJP chief whip in Lok Sabha Sanjay Jaiswal, were among those present during the oath-taking.
"Vice President of India and Chairman, Rajya Sabha, Shri C. P. Radhakrishnan, administered the oath to Shri Nitish Kumar as an elected Member of Rajya Sabha, from Bihar, at Parliament House today," the Vice President's office said on X, while sharing pictures of the oath-taking.
After the oath-taking, Kumar came out of the new Parliament building and spoke about the time he was a member of the Lok Sabha and sat in the old Parliament building.
As Kumar assumes the Rajya Sabha role, it marks the end of his long two-decade rule in Bihar. Kumar will soon resign as chief minister and the NDA is likely to elect a new chief minister of Bihar on April 14.
He has already resigned as a member of the State Legislative Council on March 30 after he was elected to Rajya Sabha.
The JD(U) supremo was elected to the Upper House of Parliament on March 16, and he had to quit as an MLC in the 14-day period after his election.
