Xra Time Web Desk: World No.1 Indian archer Deepika Kumari will not partner her husband Atanu Das in the mixed team event at the Tokyo Games. Deepika will partner Pravin Jadhav who earned his ticket for the mixed team event after scoring 656 points in the individual men’s recurve qualification round. He was placed at No 31, four places above Atanu Das.
Normally the highest ranked individual player’s in men’s and women’s event partner in the mixed team event. Since Pravin had a better ranking so the Archery Association of India (AAI) decided to field the archer from Maharashtra for the mixed team event. The decision was taken by the selection committee and has been communicated to archery coach Mim Bahadur Gurung.
Deepika, being the lone Indian women archer in the competition, was hoping to partner husband Atanu at the Tokyo Olympics on the back of winning the mixed team gold medal at last month’s Paris World Cup. But with Atanu performing poorly in the ranking event, she will have to partner Pravin in the mixed team event.
The pair of Pravin and Deepika is ranked ninth with a combined score of 1319 points and is expected to meet top medal contender Korean duo of An San and Kim Je Deok in the elimination matches.