Paris:

Debutant Ankita Bhakat left behind seasoned campaigners like Deepika Kumar to emerge as the best-placed Indian archer at 11th in the Paris Olympics’ women’s individual recurve qualifications as the country secured a quarterfinal spot in the team event by finishing fourth here on Thursday. The 26-year-old Ankita was the top-ranked Indian woman with 666 points, followed by Bhajan Kaur (22nd with 559 points) and Deepika Kumari (23rd with 658 points). In the team event, India grabbed the fourth spot by scoring 1983 points. South Korea topped the standings with 2046 points. China finished runners-up while Mexico grabbed the third spot.

The top four in the team standings directly advance to the quarterfinals, while those ending between 5th to 12th play the Round of 16 fixtures.

India will face the winner of the contest between France and Netherlands in the quarterfinals.

If they clear the quarters, India could be headed for a semifinal showdown with heavyweights Korea.

The Korean women’s team has been invincible in the Olympics, winning a ninth straight medal in Tokyo three years ago.

In the individual section, Korea’s Lim Sihyeon smashed a world record score of 694 to top the standings, while her compatriot Suhyeon Nam scored 688 points to finish second.

China’s Yang Xiaolei was third with 673.

Ankita, who hails from Bengal and represents Tata Academy, was the surprise package on the day from the Indian perspective, even as four-time Olympian Deepika faltered to return her worst ever qualification result at the Games.

Deepika will, for the first time, miss out on the mixed team berth as Ankita topped among the Indians.

Ankita will partner the top Indian finisher in the men’s qualification in the mixed team finals.

The men’s qualifiers get underway in the afternoon session. PTI TAP AH PM AH PM PM

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