KOLKATA: India will be fielding a new-look archery squad for the upcoming Asian Games starting in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, from Sept 19. Olympian couple Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das failed to make the cut at the selection trials that concluded at SAI, Sonepat centre in Haryana on Monday. The top three in each category were named in the Asian Games squad while the fourth archer in the rankings will travel for World Cup Stage 3 and 4 events at Antalya, Turkey (June 9-14) and Madrid, Spain (July 7-12), respectively.Both Deepika and Atanu ended fourth in the recurve women and men’s categories to make the World Cup sides. While Deepika missed the last Asian Games too, Atanu will not be there with Olympian Dhiraj Bommadevara, who remains the lone face from the last Games in the recurve section. Star compound archer Abhishek Verma and former World champion Ojas Deotale also failed to find berth among the top four archers at the end of four-day trials. Deotale had won three gold medals in the last Games in Hangzhou in 2023 while Verma had bagged a gold and silver. The Indian challenge will once again be led by compound women archer Jyothi Vennam, who will be taking part in her fourth straight Asian Games.The recurve women’s team will have Olympian Ankita Bhakat as the only face from Hangzhou, along with rising talent Kumkum Mohod and Kirti Sharma.India squads: (First 3 for Asian Games, 4th for WC-III & IV) Compound women: Jyothi Vennam, Chikitha, Prithika, Parneet; Compound men: Sahil Jadhav, Kushal Dalal, Ganesh Ratnam, Rishabh Yadav; Recurve women: Kirti Sharma, Kumkum Mohod, Ankita Bhakat, Deepika Kumari. Recurve men: Dhiraj Bommadevara, Neeraj Chauhan, Yashdeep Bhoge, Atanu Das.
