Antalya [Turkey], April 20 : Two-time Olympian Atanu Das ended in fourth position in the men's recurve individual ranking round at the Archery World Cup 2023 Stage 1 in Antalya, Turkey on Wednesday.
Atanu made his comeback after two years in style by scoring a record 673, the best score by any Indian men's recurve archer in the event.
Indian Archery star was seen last in the Yankton World Cup Final in September 2021.
Apart from Atanu, Indian archers B Dhiraj (665), Tarundeep Rai (662) and Neeraj Chauhan (639) at 15th, 23rd and 90th places respectively were also participating in the event. The Indian men's recurve archery team also finished fourth with 2000 points in the ranking rounds.
Turkish Archer Mete Gazoz (688), USA's Brady Ellison (687) and China's Li Zhongyuan (679) were above the Indian archer at the top-three spot respectively.
After finishing fourth, India automatically qualified to participate in the pre-quarterfinals in the men's team event. In the event, India will play against a country which would come out as the first-round winners between Japan (seeded 13th) and Switzerland (20th).
It would not be easy for the Indian men's recurve team in the Archery World Cup as they are in the same half where the USA (fifth seeds) and hosts Turkey are placed, who are top of the teams.
On the other, India's women's recurve archers did not clear the qualification round and ended outside the top 30 teams.
Debutant Bhajan Kaur was the best performer, finishing 32nd in the event with 648 scores. Mexican Alejandra Valencia topped the table by scoring 677.
Simranjeet Kaur (41st) and Ankita Bhakat (46th) were behind Bhajan Kaur with 648 and 644 scores respectively. The Indian women's team finished 11th in the team standings.
Aditi Jaiswal did not make it to the team event after finishing 56th with a score of 637, she will now be able to fray in individual events.
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