Deepika Kumari falters in Archery World Cup Stage 2, fails to win medal

Top Indian female archer Deepika Kumari failed to win a single medal at the Archery World Cup Stage 2 at Yecheon after losing to World No. 2 Lim Sihyeon and World No. 3 Alejandra Valencia on Sunday.

Lim beat Deepika 6-2 (28-26, 28-28, 28-27, 27-27) in the semifinal, while Valencia got the better of the Indian 4-6 (26-29, 26-28, 28-25, 27-25, 26-29) in the bronze medal play-off match.

The result meant the Indian archers returned empty-handed in the recurve archery category, an Olympic discipline, while the non-Olympic compound category archers won two medals (one gold and one silver) in Stage 2 of the World Cup.

India won the women’s team gold and mixed team silver in the compound category.

Deepika lost in straight sets to settle for a silver in the Shanghai World Cup last month against Lim but came up with a better show but came short of a medal in the World Cup.

Deepika put up a fight to take two points off Lim after drawing the second and fourth sets but in the end, the Korean kept her cool to seal the deal.

The Indian archer’s eight-point shots, in the first, third and fourth sets, were the difference between the two archers, as Lim won in four sets.

Later, in the bronze medal play-off match, Deepika shot four 8s in the first six arrows to trail 0-4 against the Mexican.

Although she bounced back in the next two sets to make it four-all, she had a poor fifth and decisive set.

The win was Valencia’s second against India in four matches.

Deepika will now train under South Korean coaching legend Kim Hyung Tak for 15 days before the World Cup Stage 3 and will have another stint under Tak ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, her fourth straight appearance at the Summer Games.

Earlier, the Indian trio of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Swami grabbed their third successive Archery World Cup gold medal when they beat Turkey 232-226 in the compound women’s team final.

Further, Jyothi and Priyansh squandered an opening round lead to go down to the USA’s Olivia Dean and Sawyer Sullivan by two points (155-153) in the compound mixed team final, winning the silver medal.