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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Karnataka Assembly passes bill on Palace Grounds amid opposition protest
Bengaluru, Mar 6 (PTI): The Karnataka Assembly on Thursday passed the Bangalore Palace (Utilisation and Regulation of Land) Bill, reaffirming state ownership over 472 acres and 16 guntas of land here, amid protests by the opposition BJP.
During the discussion, Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil said the state government would have to provide Rs 200 crore worth of Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) for each acre of land, which means that for 15 acres, Rs 3,000 crore worth of TDR would be issued.
“If we accept it, then this 2-km stretch of road will become the costliest road in the world. If we accept it then how are we going to develop the city in later stages? How will you carry out development works?” asked Patil.
He also pointed out that this question was raised not only under the Congress government but also during the previous BJP regime.
However, the BJP-led cabinet has opposed the project.
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“Suppose we agree to it then, what will be the valuation of the 472 acres? It will be lakhs and lakhs of crores of rupees. Can we accept?” Patil wondered.
The Minister said the government had previously exercised its executive powers to issue an ordinance, which was approved by the Governor. Now the government is bringing a bill with two amendments.
“In this bill, we have made provisions either to develop or drop the road development work,” Patil explained.
However, BJP state president B Y Vijayendra and BJP MLA Arvind Bellad opposed the move, alleging that the government was targetting Yaduveer Krishna Datta Chamaraja Wadiyar, the scion of the Mysuru royal family, and the BJP MP from Mysuru-Kodagu constituency out of political vendetta.
“We talk of 472 acres of Mysuru Maharaja but here there are many Maharajas who too own 400 acres, 500 acres and thousands of acres of land, which is known to everyone,” Bellad said.
He slammed the Congress government, saying political power should not be misused for personal vendetta.
“Why (the then Deputy Chief Minister) Siddaramaiah brought the law in 1996 pertaining to the Bangalore Palace? Why are you setting eyes on the Bangalore Palace?” he asked.
Vijayendra charged that Wadiyar won the election on BJP ticket so the state government realised that it should acquire it.
“This bill has been brought for political vengeance. We are not discussing whether Rs 3,000 crore is exorbitant or not but the moment Yaduveer became MP, the state government woke up. You should be ashamed. This house should not be used for political vendetta,” he said.
Intervening, Minister Priyank Kharge said Vijayendra should not have raised it because the intention behind building the road was noble.
According to him, the BJP too had the same plan when it was in power.
He sought to know whether thousands of crores of rupees be spent on a road which should have cost significantly less.
In response, BJP MLA B A Basavaraj (Byrathi) said issuing TDR will not be a burden on the state government and appealed to the ruling Congress to reconsider its stance.
Minister Ramalinga Reddy too explained that the Karnataka government acquired the entire land way back in 1996.
The Mysuru royal family went to the High Court, which gave ruling in favour of the state government. The royal family then approached the Supreme Court, where the case is still going on, the Minister pointed out.
“The final judgment is pending in the SC to decide whether the acquisition was right or wrong. If the SC says it’s the royal family’s property then let it be so. If the order is in the state government’s favour then we can take a decision. The bill is only about it,” Reddy explained.
Speaker U T Khader then called for a voice vote and the bill was passed by the Assembly amidst opposition BJP’s discontent.
