India’s star archer Deepika Kumari won her sixth World Cup Final medal as she clinched a silver medal in the Archery World Cup final in Mexico. Kumari lost the final clash against China’s Li Jiaman with a scoreline of 0-6 in Tlaxcala, Mexico. The medal won by Deepika was India’s only medal at the prestigious tournament. Notably, with her recent medal, Deepika’s silver medal tally has reached to the count of five.
To date, Dola Banerjee is the first and only Indian archer to win a gold medal at the World Cup Final. Speaking of Deepika, she moved past Tokyo Olympics mixed team bronze medallist and Paris Olympics women’s team bronze medallist Alejandra Valencia of Mexico 6-4. In the quarters, she had taken down China’s Yang Xiaolei with a scoreline of 6-0. Deepika was playing her first World Cup Final after a break of three years due to pregnancy and in the competition, she was seeded third in an eight-archer field.
Dhiraj Bommadevara falls in first round
In the men’s recurve round, Dhiraj Bommadevara failed to make a mark as he faced an early exit in the opening round. He had lost to South Korea’s Paris Olympics bronze medallist, Lee Woo Seok. In the clash, Dhiraj was leading 4-2 initially. However, it seems that he couldn’t take in the pressure and was seen struggling to maintain a tempo.
India, as a team, couldn’t make an impact in the World Cup Final. The five-member India contingent featured in three compounds and two recurve archers could get India only one medal. Earlier, in the compound archery section, the three-member contingent also had a forgetful outing as Prathamesh Fuge finished fourth while Priyansh and Jyothi Surekha Vennam failed to make it to the medal round.