India archer Deepika Kumari, on Saturday, said that there could’ve been a different result in mixed team archery at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics had the management stuck with her pairing with Atanu Das.
Deepika was instead paired with Pravin Jadhav who had recorded superior points than Atanu in the qualifications for the individual event.
With her husband, Deepika had won gold at the 2021 Paris World Cup in the mixed team event.
“It’s over now, there is nothing we can do about it. But yes, if at the time there was a decision taken strongly (to stick with Atanu), the situation could have been different today,” Deepika told India Today.
“Obviously, there is a quality that a person develops to finish on the podium. There is co-ordination and communication that a team develops, which is very important,” she added.
“We have worked hard for so many years and then all of a sudden that is ended when we finally get here. You judge us from one performance but all the performances we give for three-four years, that is never judged,” she further said.
Deepika and Jadhav were ousted in the pre-quarters of the mixed team event.
She urged the management to be strong while taking decisions and take into consideration the past performances.
While Deepika appeared in her third Olympics, Atanu was in his second.
Talking about her outing at the 2020 Sumer Games, Deepika said: “I had prepared very well. I learnt a lot from the last two Olympics and improve a lot. I think something has gone wrong somewhere again and it is very important for me to find out what that was. I hope I can improve myself more.”
Earlier in the day, Atanu Das made a quarterfinal exit after losing 4-6 to Japan’s Takaharu Furukawa in a five-set thriller.
Talking about the match, Atanu Das said: “In the Olympics, every match is different, the situation, mindset, everything is different. I don’t want to compare (with the match against Oh). I tried but it’s okay I failed.”
This was India’s best performance in archery in terms of progressing and Atanu seemed optimistic.
