India women’s recurve team has bagged a gold medal at the Archery World Cup Stage 3 in Paris. The team comprising of Deepika Kumari, Komalika Bari, and Ankita Bhakat easily defeated Mexico with 5-1 in the finals without dropping a set. The official handle of World Archery shared the news by tweeting “India takes gold in Paris”
Last week, the Indian women’s recurve archery failed to qualify for Tokyo 2020 following a shock loss to minnows Colombia at the final Olympic qualifier in Paris. The Indian trio went down 6-0 to Colombia in the round of 16 despite making an impressive start to the day and failed to earn a Tokyo 2020 quota.
This was their second successive gold medal at the World Cup this year, and sixth overall (Shanghai-2011, Medellin-2013, Wroclaw-2013, Wroclaw-2014, Guatemala City-2o21).
Archer Deepika has been a constant each time. The trio was at their best, shooting four 10s with one X (closest to the centre) for a 57-57 score in the first set.
The Indian team’s flawless shooting put pressure back on the Mexican team of London 2012 silver-medalist Aida Roman, Alejandra Valencia and Ana Vazquez.
They shot a poor 52 to lose the second set by three points. Leading 3-1, the Indians had another round of consistent shooting with a 55 but the Mexicans failed to equalise and lost the third set by one point to suffer a second successive defeat this year.
