3. Atanu Das
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Medal chances: 15%
If India’s best woman archer is still looking a bit wobbly, the men’s section has hope in the form of Atanu Das. The team might have failed to qualify but the Kolkata archer has been proving himself of late which enabled him to make use of the solitary quota place that India earned earlier.
Recent performances:
It was amazing to see how Das had been moving up the ranks right ahead of Rio. He is only 24 and has never been to the mega-quadrennial Games before. Yet his maturity belies his age.
After struggling last year, he came back with a bang in 2016 after a change of equipment. Since then, his focus, match temperament and determination have been top-notch. At the first leg of the World Cup in Shanghai, he grabbed two medals – a bronze each in men’s recurve team and the mixed team events.
At the Antalya leg, he outshone all the Indian archers with his solid performance. He was once again one-half of the mixed recurve team that delivered India the silver medal. But it is his fearlessness in the individual event that became the talking point.
He led the World No. 1 Kim Woojin for nearly half of the bronze medal play-off before succumbing to the Korean in the closest of finishes when Woojin’s arrow landed closer to the centre at 10-10 in the shoot-off.
It is no wonder that his Antalya show has shot him up 30 places to his current 22nd ranking. It surely was a huge boost for Das ahead of Rio.
Prediction:
There’s no iota of doubt that he has been one of the most consistent individual performers of the Indian team in the build-up to the Olympics
Yet, the Olympics are one event he has never been to before and stage fright might just play a role. And that can cause a major difference in results. With guts and gumption, he can even pull off a surprise. However, keeping the circumstances in mind, let’s pencil him in as a probable quarter-finalist.
