Seasoned archers Tarundeep Rai and Deepika Kumari will step on the archery arena here on Thursday, a day before the official opening of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, to commence India’s medal hunt.
Forty-year-old Rai from Sikkim and Deepika from Ranchi in Jharkhand are no spring chickens and, in fact, will compete in their fourth Olympics.
Rai will take part in the men’s individual ranking round after Deepika sets her sights in the corresponding women’s event at the Invalides Arena.
Rai has created ripples at the Asian Games, World Championships, World Cups and the Commonwealth Games with a string of medals including three in World Cups.
However, neither he nor the 30-year-old Deepika, who is now married to fellow archer Atanu Das, has tasted success at the Olympics in past campaigns.
Deepika’s best at multi-sport disciplines was the gold medal that she clinched at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
She was eliminated in the first round in London in 2012, in the third round in 2016 at Rio and then made it to the quarter finals in the Tokyo Games of 2020 which were held in 2021 due to the Covid pandemic.
Also in fray in the women’s individual ranking round are her compatriots Ankita Bhakat and Bhajan Kaur.
In the men’s individual ranking event, apart from Rai two other Indians – Pravin Ramesh Jadhav and Dhiraj Bommadevara – will also be seen in action.