The Archery Association of India has officially confirmed that Atanu Das will be representing India for the Rio 2016 Olympics after a selection trial at Bengaluru. The 24-year-old archer will be competing in the men's individual recurve discipline after getting the better of his compatriots Jayanta Talukdar and Mangal Singh Champia.
Last year, Champia had grabbed a solitary quota place in the World Championship but lost out to Atanu because of his unimpressive form in the past few months. The decision however, was made after a separate trial held by the Archery Association of India to pick the best out of the three.
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Speaking over the phone after the selection, he says, “I am very happy that I have finally been selected to represent the nation. But there is a long way to go. Hopefully, I can make India proud.”
In the recently-concluded Antalya World Cup, the archer from West Bengal settled for a silver medal in the mixed recurve event alongside the former World No. 1, Deepika Kumari. Later he put up a spirited performance against the reigning World No. 1 Kim Woojin of Korea in the individual bronze medal play-off, eventually losing in a nail-biting shootout.
The men’s recurve team also failed in their pursuit to secure a place in the Rio Olympics after crashing out in the quarter-final of the final Olympic qualifying event. On the other hand, the women’s recurve team - Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi, and Laxmirani Mahi is going to Rio after making the cut in Denmark last year. Deepika will be a part of the individual recurve event as well.
