Seasoned archers Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das were not selected for the Indian men’s and women’s squads for the upcoming Asian Games in Japan. The Archery Association of India (AAI) chose Dhiraj Bommadevara, Ankita Bhakat, and Jyothi Surekha Vennam for the strong and youthful teams. Deepika, who recently led India to a gold medal in the Shanghai World Cup, and Atanu were excluded from the crucial 2026 Asian Games despite being picked for the next two World Cup Stages.
Dhiraj Bommadevara, Neeraj Chouhan, and Yashdeep Bhoge will represent the Indian men’s recurve team at the Asian Games. Bommadevara, with experience from the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, will be joined by Chouhan, who set a new national record in the Men’s Recurve event. In the women’s recurve section, Kumkum Anil Mohod, Kirti Sharma, and Ankita Bhakat, who won a bronze in the Hangzhou Asian Games 2022, will compete.
The compound archery team will feature Sahil Jadhav, Kushal Dalal, and Thirumuru Ganesh Mani Ratnam in the men’s category. Notably, Ojas Deotale and Abhishek Verma, gold and silver medalists in the Hangzhou Asian Games, were left out. Jyothi Surekha Vennam, a top-ranked archer, will lead the women’s compound team alongside Chikitha Taniparthi and Prithika Pradeep.
India, aiming to replicate its success from the Hangzhou Asian Games, will send the selected squad to compete in the upcoming World Cup Stages 3 and 4 in Antalya, Turkiye, and Madrid, Spain, respectively.
