Baranagar-born Banerjee, who had made India proud by winning the Archery World Cup last year, was facing an uphill task to qualify for the Olympics after her form nosedived in recent months.
At the four-day-long Olympics trials held in Kolkata, which wrapped up today, the 28-year-old archer fared well enough to secure her ticket.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Banerjee said she was pleased with her performance. “This has come as a huge relief to me. Recently my form wasn’t good enough. But now I am gradually getting back to form, and my shooting is becoming better again,” she added.
The Railway’s player will participate both in individual and team events at the Olympics.
Her finest moment in archery came when she became world champion by winning the Gold medal in the women’s individual recurve competition at the World Cup held at Dubai in November last year.
Banerjee had represented India at the 2004 Athens Olympics, where she faced an upset defeat. Next year she was conferred with the prestigious Arjuna Award.
Besides Banerjee, V Pranitha also booked the birth and will join L Bombayla Devi in the Indian women’s recurve archery team for the Games.
At the end of trials at the Sports Authority of India’s centre, 17-year-old Pranitha stood first with a total of 5167 out of 5760 points. Banerjee was second with 5141 points. Each archer was asked to shoot 144 arrows daily for four days over a distance of 70m.
At the Olympics, an archer will shoot 72 arrows over the 70m distance in the qualification round.