Bhajan Kaur celebrating

Azerbaijan, India, Iran, Moldova, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine gained their first women individual quotas for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Antalya, Türkiye.

All seven countries gained one Olympic quota each after winning their respective round of 16 matches. 

Despite India having two athletes go through to the quarterfinals, only one woman will travel to Paris with each nation restricted to one quota per gender in the Final Olympic Qualifier.

Archers from Azerbaijan, India, Iran, Moldova, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine won individual recurve women’s tickets to Paris 2024 at the final world qualification tournament in Antalya, Türkiye.

Eight quotas were on offer in this event after the recurve women’s team tickets were filled for China, Chinese Taipei, Great Britain and Malaysia on Friday.

However, each country could only win a maximum of one spot in individuals. 

India had two archers reaching the last eight but Bhajan Kaur will be the one to go to Paris as she finished ahead of Ankita Bhakat in the Final Olympic Qualifier Tournament, beating Iran’s Mobina Fallah in the first place match.

The remaining quota will be decided via world ranking.

The last chance to upgrade to a full team of three athletes for Paris 2024 is now on the world ranking list issued on 24 June – top two nations per gender not yet qualified.

Archery at the 2024 Olympics will run from 25 July to 4 August on the Esplanade de Invalides and award five gold medals in total – recurve men’s individual, recurve women’s individual, recurve men’s team, recurve women’s team and recurve mixed team.

Bhajan Kaur commented: “I’m very happy that today I could win the gold medal and Olympic quota for India. I will definitely try in the Paris Olympics to win a medal.

“I’l be doing a lot of practice. I’ll be doing practice for the mixed team and for the individual. The biggest thing is I have confidence in myself. That belief will make me win.

“I have belief in myself. If others can do it why can’t I? I had very good focus and that’s why I won this tournament.”