The Indian men’s archers struggled to make an impact in the ranking round of men’s individual competition on Day 0 of the Tokyo Olympics at the Yumenoshima Park on Friday. Debutant Pravin Jadhav finished ahead of the experienced duo of Atanu Das and Tarundeep Rai in 31st place with 656 points. Das, making his third Olympic appearance, finished 35th with 653 points, while Rai finished in 37th place with 652 points. 

Jadhav managed 22 tens and five Xs, while former Asian Games silver medallist Das managed to hit 24 tens and six Xs and Rai managed 26 tens and six Xs.   

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South Korea had three archers among the top five, with 17-year-old prodigious talent JD Kim narrowly missing the Olympic record with 688 points. His compatriots JH Oh and WJ Kim finished third and fourth with 681 and 680 points respectively. 

World number one American archer B Elison finished second with 682 points and China’s H Muto rounded off the top five with 678 points. 

Meanwhile, India finished ninth in the men’s team event, where scofing 1961 points. South Korea once again topped the round with 2049 points, with the Netherlands, China, Japan and the United States rounding off the top five spots. 

Earlier in the day, world number one Deepika Kumari finished ninth in the women’s ranking round, with 663 points. She will face Bhutan’s Bhu Karma in the opening round. 20-year-old South Korean archer An San broke the Olympic record with a score of 680, surpassing the record held by Ukraine’s Lina Herasymenko. The world record (692) is held by South Korea’s Kang Chae Wong. 

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India’s mixed team also finished ninth with 1,319 points, level with Chinese Taipei. India are likely to face South Korea in both mixed and men’s team events later in the tournament.     

India will face Chinese Taipei and Kazakhstan in the first round of the archery mixed and men’s team events respectively, with South Korea waiting in the quarters if they prevail in the opening  round.