Who is Ankita Bhakat: Indian archer who impressed early at Paris 2024 Olympics

Ankita Bhakat started India’s campaign at the Paris 2024 Olympics on a positive note as the 26-year-old helped her team qualify directly for the quarter-finals of women’s archery. Bhakat performed best among the three Indian archers in the event, finishing 11th with 666 points. The tally was much better than Bhajan Kaur (22nd with 659 points) and former world number 1 Deepika Kumari (23rd with 658 points). India finished fourth with 1,983 points behind South Korea (2,046), China (1996) and Mexico (1986) to book their place directly in the quarter-finals of the competition at the 2024 Olympics. Ankita made headlines on Day 1 , as he managed to produce the best performance of his season.

Before the Paris 2024 Olympics, Ankita won the bronze medal in the women’s team recurve event at the 2023 Asian Games as part of the team that also featured Simranjeet Kaur and Bhajan Kaur.

After her triumph, Ankita once again put up a good show at the 2024 Archery World Olympic Qualifiers in Antalya, Turkey, as she reached the quarterfinals to book her place in the 2024 Olympics.

She ended up losing to Mobina Fallah of Iran in the quarterfinals.

The 26-year-old began her archery journey at the age of 10 while training at the Calcutta Archery Club. Bhakat then joined the Archery Academy in Jamshedpur where she honed her skills.

Meanwhile, India will face the winner of the match between France and Netherlands in the quarter-finals.

If they make it past the quarters, India could be headed for a semi-final clash with heavyweights Korea.

The Korean women’s team has been invincible at the Olympics, winning their ninth consecutive medal in Tokyo.

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

(With PTI inputs)