Indian archers in final

 India’s Deepika Kumari maintained her focus in tough weather conditions on Saturday to beat Beauty Ray of Bangladesh to enter the final.

In this Olympic year, so much is at stake for the Indian archery men’s and women’s recurve teams.

While the women’s team has already qualified for the Games, it is still not certain as to who the three archers would be at Rio, as five more selection trials to pick the final three remain.

The men’s team hasn’t yet made the grade for Rio, but will get a final chance at the third World Cup at Turkey in June. If it fails there, one male archer could make the cut from the trials.

With so much on their mind, the 12th South Asian Games for many of the top archers would seem to be a minor distraction, but that has not stopped them from giving it their all. India’s No. 1 women’s ace archer Deepika Kumari, for example, maintained her focus in tough weather conditions on Saturday to beat Sonam Deki (Bhutan) 6-2 in the quarterfinals and Beauty Ray of Bangladesh 6-0 in the last-four to enter the final.

The 21-year-old will meet Bombayla Devi on Tuesday. “The weather conditions made things quite difficult,” admitted Deepika.

It can be a clean sweep by the host, as it has reached the finals in all four individual events: recurve (men & women) and compound (men & women).

Meanwhile, the Indian table tennis men’s team qualified for the semifinals with 3-0 wins over Bangladesh and Nepal in Group A. The Indian women, too, qualified for the last four with identical wins over Pakistan and Maldives from Group A.

The Indian men’s badminton team reached the semifinals with 3-0 wins over Maldives and Bangladesh in Group A, without losing a game.

The results: Archery: Recurve: Men: Semifinals: Tarundeep Rai bt Prem Prasad Pun (Nep) 6-2; Gurucharan Besra bt Nipuna Senevirathne (SRL) 7-3; Quarterfinals: Tarundeep bt Kinly Tshering (SRL) 6-5; Prem Prasad bt Md. Tamumul Ishlam (Ban) 6-0; Nipuna Senevirathne (SRL) bt Sojeb Shiek (Ban) 6-4; Guruchuran bt Jigme Norbu (Bhu) 7-1.

Women: Semifinals: Deepika Kumari bt Beauty Ray (Ban) 6-0; L. Bombayla Devi bt Karma (Bhu) 6-2; Quarterfinals: Deepika bt Sonam Deki (Bhu) 6-2; Beauty Ray bt Dilhara Salgado (SRL) 6-5; Karma bt Shamoli Ray (Ban) 6-5; Bombayla bt Anuradha Karunaratne (SRL) 6-5.

Compound: Men: Semifinals: Abhishek Verma bt Tshewang Dorji (Bhu) 148-135; Rajat Chauhan bt Tashi Deljor (Bhu) 145-142; Women: Jyothi Surekha Vennam bt Sushmita Banik (Ban) 145-134; Purvasha Sudhir Shende bt Tammanna Parvin (Ban) 139-133.

Table Tennis: Men: Group A: Stage 1: India bt Bangladesh 3-0; India bt Nepal 3-0; Group B: Sri Lanka bt Maldives 3-0; Pakistan bt Afghanistan 3-0; Sri Lanka bt Pakistan 3-1; Maldives bt Afghanistan 3-2; Women: Group A: India bt Maldives 3-0; India bt Pakistan 3-0; B: Sri Lanka bt Bangladesh 3-0; Afghanistan bt Nepal 3-0; Sri Lanka bt Nepal 3-1; Bangladesh bt Afghanistan 3-0.