Can Deepika Kumari and Co live up to pre-Olympic hype?

Deepika Kumari

Up against a familiar pre-Olympic hype and with history stacked heavily against them, Indian archers will have a feeling of deja vu when they begin their Tokyo Games campaign with the rankings round here on Friday.

Notwithstanding the women's team's failure to qualify, the quartet of Deepika Kumari, Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav entered the mega event with renewed hopes of winning the country's first Olympic medal in the sport.

The biggest prospects are the husband-wife duo of Das and Deepika who would look to recreate the magic of the Paris World Cup in the mixed pair competition that would make its Games debut on Saturday at the Yumenoshima Park. Since the 1988 Games, India have produced many champions in the sport with the likes of Limba Ram and then Dola Banerjee winning at all levels except at the Olympics.

Jayanta Talukdar had become World No. 2 in 2006, while Dola had raised the bar in 2007 by becoming the world champion, but they all fizzled out at Beijing 2008.
What followed was a meteoric rise of Deepika, who turned many heads around at a young age of 15, by winning the Youth World Championships in 2009 and then bagging two gold at the New Delhi Commonwealth Games next year.

But in London 2012, she made a first-round exit as a full strength Indian side failed to make any impact, and the outing was no better in Rio de Janeiro four years later.

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