World No. 1 Deepika Kumari logged 663 points to finish ninth in the individual women’s category while Indian men archers gave a below-par performance in the ranking round of the archery competitions on the opening day of the Tokyo Olympics on Friday.
Pravin Jadhav, Atanu Das, and Tarundeep Rai scored 656, 653, and 652 respectively out of a maximum 720 to take 31st, 35th and 37th slots respectively on the men’s ranking list.
Koreans Je Deok Kim (688) and Jinheyk Oh (681) were placed first and third with USA’s Brady Ellison second at 682.
Deepika, who will face Bhutan’s Karma in the first elimination round, could run into South Korea’s top-ranked Olympic-record holder An San in the quarterfinals. An set an Olympic record with 680 points.
Pravin will face Russian Galsan Bazarhapov, Atanu will meet Yu-Cheng Deng of Chinese Taipei and Tarundeep will take on Oleksii Hunbin of Ukraine in the opening elimination round.
The Indian men’s team, which managed the ninth spot with 1961 points, way behind top-ranked Korea (2049), will square off against Kazakhstan on Monday.
Pravin and Deepika, taking part in the mixed team event, were lying ninth with 1319 points while Korea topped with 1368. Deepika and Pravin will take on Chinese Taipei’s Chia-En Lin and Chih-Chun in the round of 16.
