LUCKNOW, Feb. 27 -- A four-time Olympian and two-time World Championships silver medallist, Deepika Kumari, has decided to skip the 4th NTPC Khelo India National Ranking for Women Archery Tournament, beginning Friday, at the KD Singh 'Babu' Stadium here. Deepika's husband and also an Olympian archer, Atanu Das on Thursday confirmed about Kumari's non-participation in the Lucknow-leg of the event. "She was about to participate but due to our family emergency she will not participate in Lucknow NRAT anymore," Das states in a text message to HT. Deepika, who happens to be one of the most decorated Indian recurve archers and the first Indian archer to rise to the top of the world rankings, reaching the World No1 ranking in 2012, recently secured a bronze medal in the mixed team recurve event and a silver in the women's team event at the 38th National Games in February 2025 before clinching a gold at the 2nd NTPC National Ranking Archery Tournament this year. Formerly, she was dropped from TOPS in 2022 due to poor performance but has since made a strong comeback to top form. The four-day NRT, which will conclude on March 4, featuring archers in senior, junior, and sub-junior categories, offers Rs 7.5 lakh as prize money, which will be distributed among the top 16 archers in each category. Top 16 archers based on cumulative scores from previous ranking tournaments are eligible for the event. In fact, the tournament follows a ranking round to determine seedings for the elimination rounds.The top 16 archers in each category qualify for head-to-head elimination matches to decide final standings from 1st to 16th place. This is the fourth and final event in the series; the cumulative scores from all four ranking tournaments determine the qualifiers for the Final NTPC Khelo India National Ranking Women's Archery Tournament, which carries a larger prize purse of Rs 20 lakh. Former Indian archery coach Sanjeeva Kumar Singh terms the Khelo India National Ranking Women Archery Tournament a perfect platform to increase female participation, provide domestic competition exposure to second-line archers, and establish a national ranking system to identify talent for elite, international-level training. "The tournament aims to boost women's participation in archery across India, fostering a "Nari Shakti" (women's power) spirit. It also serves as a platform for identifying and nurturing talent from grassroots level to the elite level," said Singh, who now runs his own academy in Deoria. "In my view the tournament provides regular, high-quality domestic competition, allowing archers to develop mental toughness and competitiveness. It establishes a national ranking system, with top-performing archers in five phases accumulating points," he added. The third day of the 72nd Senior Men's National Kabaddi Championship 2026 got underway with quarter finals and knockout matches producing commanding victories for some teams while others bowed out of competition at Vadodara. Sixteen teams were in action across eight knockout matches, battling for a place in the next round. A mix of dominant performances and closely fought encounters saw Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Services, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Indian Railways and Bihar advance to the quarter-finals. The quarter-finals began on a dramatic note, with Uttar Pradesh causing a major upset by defeating defending champions Services 55-51 to advance to the semi-finals. Arjun Deshwal, who also captains Tamil Thalaivas in the Pro Kabaddi League, starred for Uttar Pradesh with an impressive 19-point haul. The second quarterfinal between Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh ended in the former's favour as they recorded a 53-38 win with Ajit Chouhan and Aditya Shinde leading the raiding unit, with a score of 14 and 12 respectively. The knockouts also saw another major upset as Tamil Nadu advanced to quarters by defeating one of the strongest teams of the tournament, Haryana in a tie-breaker, after both teams ended the contest with a score of 35-35 tie. Chandigarh registered a dominant 45-26 victory over Madhya Pradesh, with the the lead Indian player Pawan Sehrawat scoring a total of 10 points. This was followed by Maharashtra's convincing 69-21 win over Pondicherry as they put an overall great team performance....