Indoor Archery World Cup: Deepika Kumari clinches bronze medal

Indian archery star Deepika Kumari grabbed a bronze medal in women’s individual recurve category at the Indoor Archery World Cup 2018 Stage 2 that concluded in Bangkok, Thailand on Sunday. The third seeded Kumari got the better of the 13th seeded Sayana Tsyrempilova of Russia 7-3 (29-29, 30-27, 30-27, 28-29, 30-28) to take home India’s only medal from this event.

Deepika started the knockout rounds with a flawless 6-0 win over compatriot, Nivetha Ganesan. She then followed it up with a 7-3 victory over yet another of her countrywoman, Laishram Bombayla Devi.

In the quarter-finals, she beat her third Indian opponent of the day, Ankita Bhakat. The latter had stopped the former World No. 1 at the Asian Championships in the Round of 32 just a few days back.

But this time, Kumari was up for the challenge and registered a 6-2 win over Bhakat. Deepika’s gold medal dreams crashed after she was edged 5-6 (9-10) by the second seeded Kim Surin of Korea in the semi-finals.

The fifth Indian in the draw, Monika Saren was blanked 0-6 by the eventual silver medallist Surin in the Round of 16.

Top seed Atanu Das fails to reach quarters

In contrast, Indian archers fared poorly in the men’s recurve section with none managing to reach the quarter-finals. Atanu Das had performed brilliantly in the qualifying rounds on Saturday to grab the top seeding.

However, he could not bring that confidence in the elimination rounds and bowed out in the Round of 16 with a 3-7 loss to the 16th seed and eventual silver medallist, Matteo Fissore of Italy. In an all-Indian first round clash, the 12th seeded Jayanta Talukdar prevailed over Rahul Banerjee, 7-3 but lost 2-6 in the very next round to the fifth seeded Kim Joo Wan of Korea.

10th seed Swami Indrachand won his first round with a comfortable 7-1 win over China’s Peng Cheng only to face a 2-6 defeat at the hands of Plihon Pierre in the next round. Atul Verma and Akhil Choudhary lost their respective openers.

Indian archers came to this tournament after a superb show at the Asian Archery Championships in Dhaka where they clinched nine medals, that included three gold.