New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) The Indian archers will aim to qualify for the London 2012 Olympics at the 46th World Outdoor Target Archery Championship in Turin, Italy, July 3-10.
For the qualification, the recurve men and recurve women teams have to end among the first eight teams overcoming a strong challenge from more than 600 participants of about 90 countries who will vie for medals and the Olympic berths.
The International Archery Federation (FITA) has allocated to the World Championship 32 places out of 64 per gender for the London 2012 Olympics. There will be subsequent continental qualification tournaments (13 places) and two Final World Team qualification tournaments qualifiers (13 places) until the Olympic Games.
India's recurve men trio of Jayanta Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai and Rahul Banerjee won silver in the World Cup in Croatia in May. The women's recurve team -- Deepika Kumari, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Chekrovolu Swuro -- also bagged silver in the second World Cup in Turkey June 6-12. They will look to give their best shot and seal a berth for the London Games.
Talukdar and Deepika Kumari won the mixed silver medal in the second World Cup which has been included as a new event in the World Championship for the first time.
President of the Archery Association of India (AAI) Vijay Kumar Malhotra gave a send-off to the team Thursday and hoped that the recurve men and women teams will do well and qualify for London Olympics.